The Princess and the Cowboy
by SuperCharles
Summary: Clark Kent with no idea of his unique heritage marries Lana & takes over the family farm, until tragedy strikes. Clark travels to Metropolis looking for a new start, an encounter with an Agent from Meta-Human Affairs changes the course of his life forever
1. Chapter 1

A Superman-n-Wonder Woman Yahoo Group Challenge.

"Instead of leaving Smallville Clark married Lana and stayed there and so never became Superman. Now recently divorced/widowed Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis to start his life over. He meets a certain Diana Prince. Does he finds out who she really is? Will she inspire him to finally use his powers for the greater good and become the hero we know he is meant to be?"

- "S" -

Clark Kent rubbed his hand, the scar in the middle of his palm itched from time to time, and it really plagued him today of all days, Lana's funeral was a solemn affair, how could it fail to be, he held back his tears. Clark had loved her dearly and now Lana Kent was dead.

He played with his collar and the black neck tie. His mother took his right hand.

The Methodist Minister Reverend Campbell spoke at length about Lana's wonderful qualities. Clark still felt numb, he was haunted by the metallic smell of her blood, the image of Lana lying in the stall beside the calf and it's mother, a Long Horn Cow that had so recently given birth.

Later Clark stood outside the Kent farmhouse thinking. Mom and Pa Kent had moved back in the days since Lana's death, and Clark was glad for their company, but he had waited most of his young life for them to grow up and move out, and they had when he married Lana Lang, he'd brought her home to the empty house that had been the focus of so much of their childhood. Together they had painted and decorated, making the house their own.

"She shouldn't have gone in there." Clark said angrily to Jonathan Kent. The younger man struck the railing that ran around the porch, a wooden splinter stuck in the meat of his hand, and he bled little drops of red blood onto the floor.

"No she shouldn't son." His Pa agreed.

Clark reflected that really there was no telling Lana she had red head's temper and stubbornness, but Clark had told her. "A cow with a calf is far more fearsome than any bull." Also that "Long Horn cattle are dangerous when they are confined, simply because of their distinctive horns."

Now they could only guess as to what had happened, perhaps the newborn calf had been in distress, perhaps unable to take it's first breath, so Lana had gone against good practise and entered the stall with a cow and calf alone, perhaps the mother had been spooked by something.

What Clark did know was that the cows left horn had done the damage, entering through Lana's eye, death would have been instantaneous. The cow had probably just shook it's head suddenly, and it was done.

"I'm going to get away for a bit." Clark told his Pa.

"Sure son. I can get help when I need it here, I know a young guy who needs some work, you take as long as you need."

Clark nodded. He took off his glasses, the world suddenly went blurry, he rubbed his eyes, he couldn't wear contacts, something in his eyes kept drying them out, so he gave up.

"Where are you thinking of heading." Pa Kent asked. "Just because your mother will want to know." He added.

"Metropolis."

"I figured you would."

- "S" -

Clark opened the barn door, he shuddered as he looked to the far end to stalls where he'd found Lana. The sooner he put distance between himself and those memories the better. He pulled the dust cover off the car self evidently hidden beneath the cotton. Folding the material he hung it over the nearest stall.

The Dodge Charger had belonged to his father back in the early 70's it was loud politically incorrect, and before the disc brake conversation that would have purists howling, it didn't stop too great, but Clark liked to tinker, he liked to make things better, improve adapt and change. He had restored the old car back and beyond it's former glory. For Clark it seemed there was always something just out of reach, a fuzziness to his senses that he couldn't put his finger on, like he was missing something.

His hand itched as he slipped her into drive, and eased the pale blue car out of barn, the throbbing v8 rumble was music to his ears.

He pulled out Fleetwood Mac Rumours and stuck the album into the 8 track, the mods were only there if you looked for them, visually the car was as it should be.

- "S" -

The apartment was cheap, the garage wasn't, Clark wondered whether he shouldn't have left the Charger at home, he didn't care for city traffic anyway, and the city gas mileage, he didn't like to think about it. Somehow knowing the car was there helped, it made him feel he could find solitude if he had too, just hit the road drive north, get away from it all.

That said Money for once wasn't a great problem. It was tragic but the truth was Lana and Clark had taken out a joint policy when they had married, this insurance saw the mortgage on the farm paid off if either of the died, and the pay out came with lump sum on top. Clark had cleared all the debt's, and had been left a cushion in his savings account.

It meant looking for work wasn't a priority, this was like a holiday for him, but by the second week he had felt stir crazy, it was late, but Metropolis never slept, and Clark had taken to walking down town when he couldn't get any shut eye, he decided it was lack of hard work, that his body was rebelling.

He rubbed his itchy palm.

The bar was open, and music was playing, old rock, his kind of thing, he bought a beer. The trouble started later on. The guy on the door was set upon by a couple of big guys, they looked like football players. Clark had played football, and he'd been good, good enough for people to talk about a college scholarship, but Pa Kent's triple by pass surgery meant Clark had put aside such thoughts and concentrated on the farm. Kent grabbed one of them by shoulder, the bouncer was already down, Clark pulled his attacker to the floor before he could aim a cowardly kick at the doorman on the ground, his foul mouthed buddy threw a punch. Pa had taught Clark to box, and he blocked and jabbed.

"Hit a man in glasses would ya?" He said. The other thug went down.

After the fracas was over Jerome's Bar's Manager poured Clark a beer, and generously picking up his tab for the night. "Say your pretty useful to have around, do you want a job?" The offer was genuine but surprising.

"Sure." Clark replied saying yes even before he'd really thought about it. Shaking on the deal.

- "S" -

Clark hadn't planned any of it , he'd just fallen into working behind the bar, and he found he was good at it, some city types poked fun at his accent, but his quiet charm and good humour won favour with the regulars. His few weeks sabbatical turned in a few months. Pa was happy back on the farm, the new guy he had working full time was doing the heavy lifting, and it was working out well enough.

Clark couldn't see himself staying here at Jerome's Bar, Metropolis, forever, but he was happy for now, no question this place was antithesis of Smallville - and of farming. Here he could forget Lana – almost. Subconsciously he rubbed his wedding ring with his thumb, the the palm of his hand, his scar with his fingers.

The only crowd that didn't gel with Clark were a surly bunch that seemed to meet regularly on a Friday, they'd drink and talk and keep themselves to themselves. Clark didn't think too much about it, they were a mixed crowd, a couple of Arabs, a white dude, and a black guy, and a swarthy looking man with a beard of indiscriminate origin. He came and went more than the others, sometime he stayed, sometimes he just had the one drink and left them to it. Clark didn't talk to them, and they didn't tip, he just served them their pitcher and left them to it.

- "S" -

Diana Prince found the bar without too much problem, it was nondescript, one of many in this part of Metropolis – Jeromes seemed okay to her, but if the tip was right then she better keep her wits about her. Her partner Tresser had failed to turn up, and that didn't surprise her, she reckoned a girl would be involved somewhere, Tom was a ladies man.

Still she was here, it seemed a waste not to check the bar out, even if going in alone wasn't strictly protocol. Then again neither was she. Diana had gone for a pair of jeans, and a light jacket just to hide the gun in the shoulder holster. It was too hot for a coat, so she hoped it looked okay, that said Diana was impervious to temperature either way.

Prince settled at the bar, and caught the bartenders eye, he looked at her through a pair of glasses, not unlike her own frames. He was kind of cute she decided, and tall. Most guys weren't taller than her, he was. Very much an all American Beef Cake, with dark hair, blue eyes, but she decided beside being handsome he was probably otherwise unremarkable, and while the glasses made him look smarter, chances are he was at best nice but dim.

She ordered a drink. The Martini wasn't bad, alcohol didn't effect her, but she could appreciate a good cocktail, it was an art, and Diana could appreciate art of any kind. The Bartender earned a point.

"What do you know about those guys?" She asked him about the four men in the corner booth.

"I don't." He said adjusting his spectacles with his middle finger.

"Oh I thought I'd seen them here before." Diana replied.

He looked at her, kind of puzzled. Diana thought, Okay he's thinking he doesn't recognise me, and the look he's giving me is saying "I would recognise you if I'd seen you before." Diana felt his animal attraction to her, another of her talents, she could read men like a book. How pedestrian they were, predictable.

"I've only been here about 3 months." He said. "I guess you came in before?"

"Yeah I've been away." Diana replied off the cuff. He had been good enough to give her an out. She had been away that was honest truth.

"Those guys just come in an drink a beer most Friday's." He told her adding. "I've never seen any of them with a girl." He let that hang there.

"What do they talk about?" Diana asked, stirring her olive around the distinctive glass. She gave him her best flashing blue demure eyes. She had noticed the wedding band, typical Diana thought as the Bartender flushed, his heart beat changed a little.

He played with the ring before answering her. Guilty conscience Diana decided. "They talk among themselves – and they clam up when anyone else is around." He looked at her with a questioning eye. "So what kind of cop are you?"

Diana raised her eyebrow, and took her own glasses off, they were fake any way. "Rumbled she said. How did you guess?"

"I saw the bulge under your jacket. You were asking questions." He also stared at her bracelets that glinted under the cuffs of her jacket, but he didn't mention them.

Not so dumb Diana decided, she smiled, warmth leaked from her lips and she knew it, it was natural to her, like breathing. He smiled back a genuine eye crinkling expression.

"Meta-Human Affairs." She answered quietly. "Mister?"

"Kent, Clark Kent."

"Which way round does that work?" She teased.

"Clark comes first, you can use it."

"Diana Prince." She said. "You're not from round here yourself are you Clark?"

"My accent I guess." He said. She nodded. "I thought so." He laughed at himself. "I just moved here, kind of a sabbatical I guess."

"You and the wife?" Diana asked.

Clark glanced at his ring. "No." He said. Diana felt the truth in his voice and the tragedy. "She died earlier this year. An accident."

He left her to serve another patron, and Diana watched him break out into a smile, despite the pain she had made him feel, there he was - an actor on a stage before her, he was pretending to be happy, and yet she sensed despite the grief there was something wholesome about Clark Kent.

Diana turned her attention back to the group of young men in the corner of the bar.

- "S" -

Clark glanced back at Diana, she was stunning, long ebony hair, perfect complexion, deep blue eyes. Lana was gone now, but even feeling the warmth of desire, made him feel guilty, but there was no denying it Prince was stunning and smart, he guessed that much, she had to be, to be a Federal agent. Meta-Human Affairs no less, he knew about the agency, it was dedicated to managing the relationship between the Nation and it's gifted citizens. It had all happened shortly after Clark had been born, people with strange abilities had begun to appear, at first they had been cases of the classic ESP type powers, pyrokinetics who could start fires, telekentics who could move objects, then others with physical abilities had appeared, strength and speed.

It was a shady world in the most part, the ones who were well known had gone into entertainment, there was a Magician called Zatana who had been outed as a magic user by the tabloids, and a singer from a band called the Black Canary too. There was talk about a monster in Gotham, and an invisible vigilante over in Central City. Of course organised crime had take advantage of the new opportunities these abilities presented. Meta-Human affairs for the main part hunted down the bad guys. It made Clark wonder what possible threat – powers the unsociable Friday regulars had?

Suddenly a gun appeared, Clark could hardly believe it, one of the four quiet guys had pulled a pistol and was aiming it at Diana.

"I tell you I read her damn mind – she's a cop I tell you."

Diana held her hands up. "Now calm down, I'm not here to cause any trouble."

The guy with the gun didn't look convinced. "She's trouble I tell you!"

"Then she's found it." A second gun appeared both Arabs were now pointing weapons.

"You've done it now." A voice hidden behind them announced. "Waste her."

Guns barked.

Clark couldn't believe it, Diana moved with grace and speed beyond his comprehension, her arms blurred and the bullets bounced from the bracelets she was wearing, and not randomly either, the bullets ricocheted back over the heads of the shooters. Kent belatedly dived under the bar for cover, but through the open hatch door he could see their corner booth, and the black guy had a dark metal, box in his hand, which he opened and within was a green rock that immediately glowed with an eerie light. Something in Clark's head hurt.

The rock seemed to affect its owner, who began to shake, as did the whole building. The gunmen dived for cover under the table. Things came loose, pictures, light fittings, the bars patron's screamed.

"It's the rock Diana!" Clark shouted. He was sure it was something to do with the mini earthquake that was tearing Jerome's apart, even if that made little rational sense, little about Meta-Humans seemed to.

Diana dived to the floor, something golden appeared from her purse then shot from her hand, the lasso wrapped round the rock and Diana snatched it clear out of the man's hands with such speed the foursome just looked blankly into space. Diana flipped the green rock over the bar, rolling as she did so. Clark guessed her intentions and he caught the glowing irregular stone like a baseball.

Pain hit him, and he felt faint. Kent collapsed to his knees. Beyond Diana rolled over to her feet and in a fluid motion aimed her gun. The building had stopped shaking, but Clark had started.

"Okay drop the weapons, or I'll drop you." She kicked the table and it went clear up into the air torn of it's support, smashing against the wall. The four men were impressed, and the two with guns dropped them. At this point Clark passed out.

The next thing he could remember was Diana prying the green rock from his fingers, his hand still hurt, all of him ached. He heard her shout. "Medic!" Then there was only blackness.

- "S" -

Sarge Steel looked at the unconscious Clark Kent. "He looks nothing special." He told Diana Prince.

Clark lay in a room at the nearest hospital, Charlton Street General. Steel checked the Kent's details on his PDA. It was cradled in his metallic left hand. Grey cropped hair topped a serious face. An older man in his fifties Steel headed up the Metahuman Affairs Agency.

"Hmm, Smallville, a Farmer until his wife died, tragic accident, nothing to suggest he's anything special."

"He reacted to the meteorite, which means he must carry the Meta-gene."

"His reaction was to pass out right?"

Diana Prince nodded. "But look at this, his hand has been glowing ever since he was in contact with substance K."

Steel looked at the farmers hand, it was calloused, showed signs of hard work, but a scar ran down the centre of the palm, beneath the skin a pale green glow could be seen.

"We've got him scheduled for theatre shortly." Diana explained. "It should be a very minor operation."

"What are thinking Prince?"

"Something caused that scar, something that's glowing green, I say it's must be substance K."

Steel nodded. "I reckon you are right." He pocketed the hand held computer, and turned to leave. "Let me know how he gets on."

"Sure thing Boss." Prince told him.

He smiled he knew she'd stay with Kent. She was that kind of girl, the kind that rescued kittens and helped lame dogs.

- "S" -

Clark was dreaming he was feeling sick and he didn't know why, the last time he'd felt like this, he'd been really small, three maybe four. He'd cut his hand, the doc had stitched it up, he had the scar, the scar that itched.

Clark remembered feeling really bad, they'd told his mother that it must be bood poisoning, and the doctor had given him a course of antibiotics, at least that's what his mom had told him. Clark knew that his childhood fever hadn't broken for days, and he was so weak for a long time after that, he remembered being a sickly boy and he was seven or eight before Clark seemed to catch up with his peers. Suddenly he was awake, someone was with him. He couldn't see well without his glasses, she lent over him.

"Hush Clark, you're okay, it's Diana Prince, you're in Hospital, you are doing fine."

Clark suddenly screamed. His hand burned, the pain was terrible. He brought his palm to his eyes, and he saw it glowing – burning under his skin.

"Nurse!" Diana called.

Clark jerked in pain, and then he took hold of his left hand with his right, and squeezed, he knew it was there, he could feel it, he had to get it out, pushing he forced the green burning light out of his skin, the scar ruptured and a thin sliver of green glowing glass like material emerged from the open wound.

"Stop that!" Diana cried out.

"I have.. to... get.. it out of me..."

Diana reached and grabbed hold the shard and pulled it, the fragment came away from the wound, it was tiny, warm, and bloody, she reached into her pocket and brought out a grey plastic bag, slipping the shard into it. Clark immediately relaxed, passing out back onto the bed.

- "S" -

Diana wasn't looking forward to this meeting. Sarge Steel bellowed at her. "What do you mean he has gone?" Her boss smacked his metal fist into his desk. "How did he do that?"

"I posted an agent at his door, and returned here to Metropolis HQ - to put the sample of substance K that Kent had embedded in his hand, into safe storage as protocol demands."

"Of course." Sarge grumbled.

"When I returned to Charlton Street General the guard was at the door, and he'd noticed nothing untoward, but I found Kent's room to be empty, the window was open, however."

"And he what jumped from a fourth story window, or perhaps he flew away?"

Diana swallowed and stiffened in her seat. "With Substance K's effect on the meta-gene perhaps he did."

Sarge snorted. "Dammit Prince – don't you think I realise that."

"Yes sir."

"Well you lost him so it's down to you to find him, and Prince make that sooner than later."


	2. Chapter 2

Department of Metahuman Affairs, Metropolis Division, Agent Diana Prince, stood with her boss Sarge Steel. She had changed into the combat uniform, something more becoming an operative. The grey urban camouflage jump suit, and black boots however looked something else on her Amazon frame. Together they both watched the bank of monitors, and the large screen ahead of them, the room was sparsely populated with a few tired faces at their individual stations, it had been a long night. There was no sign of the missing cowboy, a certain Clark Kent, who had demonstrated a strange reaction to Substance K when exposed, and more oddly had been carrying a sliver of crystalline K embedded in his hand, this had spontaneously emerged from his palm after he had been rendered unconscious by his initial exposure.

Prince had seen many reactions to Substance K, but non like this. Long term exposure had been shown in most cases to be harmful to humans, but in some cases it could trigger latent metagenetic abilities to manifest, but causing pain, suffering and unconsciousness, this was something else.

Prince looked to the live display, a team from Kansas City FBI field office were going into the Kent Farm now. It was barely dawn, and only a little over one hour since Clark Kent had been reported missing from hospital, but this was Kansas, worse still Smallville, the back water small town that had been at the epicentre to the Meteorite shower that had brought Substance K to mid west some twenty five years ago. According to the Department records the Kents had been vetted like everyone else in the Meteor fallout area. This had been standard policy following the first K-file incidents, but the Kents – all three of them had been cleared. However past experience had shown those exposed to substance K during Meteor Day could manifest radical abilities and conditions years after, and it was still going on – Clark Kent appeared to be one of those cases.

The Kent's door was broken open, under Homeland Securities special emergency powers the Department of Metahuman affairs had sweeping powers to stop and search, detain and question, too many had died at the hands of rogue Metahumans, the people had demanded protection, and the then newly appointed Director of Metahuman services had promised action.

The video feed from the FBI's helmet cameras was shaky even with the stabilisation software, that stitched the images together and combined them into a wide angle image as presented on the big screen.

The image went white momentarily, as someone hit a light, then as the feed adjusted, she saw an older man carrying a shotgun, still in his pyjamas.

"Armed Federal Officers! Put the gun down! Now Sir!"

Kent senior, Jonathan according to her screen, looked confused, shocked, and stunned. Finally he lay the shotgun on the stairs, before sitting down behind it shaking his head.

Behind him a woman, Martha, again Diana had the information at her finger tips. She came out behind him. "What's on Earth going on? Who are you people, coming into our home?"

Along the hall another figure walked, naked save for his boxer shorts. Guns and attention shifted.

"What's going on Mom, Dad? Are you okay?"

Diana stared at the image, it couldn't be, it was impossible, he couldn't have got back to Kansas from Metropolis _that_ quickly,.. unless.. she considered it, if he was in the same league as the mysterious Central City vigilante it was conceivable – just, red letter abilities didn't just happen overnight – did they?

Kent wore his glasses, the light's from the torches on the FED's guns reflected from his prescription lenses, he held up his hands.

Diana spoke over the open line. "Get me a close up on his left hand."

The lead agent brought his camera in line, shining his light onto the farmers upturned palm, it was smooth, no scar, no sign of the wound she had seen herself only a few hours previously.

-'*'-

Lex Luthor pressed his hands splayed onto the surface of his desk, the flesh white the joints as he leaned forward forcefully his face locked short of apoplectic rage, the vein visible on his temple because of his alopecia.

"What do you mean – the sample has degenerated?" Luthor's words came out monotone, he watched his chief researcher twitch nervously, his unconcealed but contained anger perhaps more threatening to her than a violent outburst.

The Head of Research of the Department for Metahuman Affairs, Karen Lou Faulkner swallowed and answered.

"Mr Director, there was no viable genetic material, the cells had ruptured, the DNA unravelled, broken down in base elements, it wasn't even blood any more."

"Why?"

"Best guess, and it is a guess, is that the subject... exhibits some violent reaction to Substance K."

"And yet according too, let me see, ah yes. Agent Prince, she does note "that he fell to the ground in agony'', but Doctor, the report states that the sliver of crystalline K you received was embedded in his hand? If his bodies reaction to Substance K is so violent how could that be? It sounds more likely does it not that the sample was compromised during transit to Washington?"

"Sir, that could have happened, if the sample was tampered with _before_ I received it, but I stand by my conclusions, perhaps his body was able to form scar tissue around the sliver of Substance K, it is possible if he was exposed long enough he might have developed a degree of tolerance. Maybe the combination of the two samples combined to overwhelm him?"

Lex Luthor stared at Doctor Faulkner before sighing deeply. He settled back into his office chair.

"Unfortunately that was my own conclusion." He turned in his chair and activated the hidden wall monitor, the tapestry folded out of sight and the big screen came on showing a live feed from an enclosed room.

"This is coming to us from Area 51, where the alien craft recovered from Kansas was quarantined following the meteor shower."

"Alien.." Faulkner whispered the word caught in her mouth.

"Of course this fact has been kept on a strictly need to know basis, and let me explain why you need to know."

Faulkner studied the scene, the stretched tear drop shaped metallic object hung in the room suspended against gravity, around it she recognised a distinctive green luminescence, whatever this was - it was being exposed to Substance K.

Luthor leant forward. "Doctor." He said sharply, to pull her attention back to him. "The device has proved impossible to access, we have not even determined whether it is organic or mineral, alive or a machine, or both, or something else entirely, it appears to be a solid mass, and yet... Well let me state the obvious first - as you see the alien is being exposed to radiation from Substance K, can you guess why?"

"I.. I don't know." Faulkner stammered, her mind raced, then she raced to a connection. "There must be a beneficial reason, either to the Alien, or to us."

She paused, Luthor remained poker faced. So she pressed on. "I suspect that the Substance K keeps the Alien in check?" It was a coin flip, but she continued. "And Mr Kent was incapacitated by substance K – the first such recorded response."

"The second."

Faulkner looked at Luthor.

"The first was the alien."

He pressed his fingers together. "Let me take you back to Smallville some twenty five years ago Karen. My father and I were visiting a Luthor Corp research facility in Kansas, some miles outside this nondescript small town, when the sky is lit up brighter than any fourth of July, and the meteorites fall. There is widespread panic, some damage to property, remarkably no one is killed directly, although human beings being human.. any way, my father sensing an opportunity for good PR despatched our people, both technical and security to assist the local community.

"I was but a small boy and eager to see the meteorites first hand, and my father indulged me, I was holding one of the rocks, still warm to the touch, when staggering through the cornfields came a machine. In all intents and purposes a robot, metallic, fluid, and seemingly confused. It came to me, and then shied back. It is not surprising that Luthor Corp security fearing for my life fired on the automaton, it returned fire, some energy beam weapon, that actually proved non-lethal, but no one was to know this as they saw their colleagues fall seemingly dead to the ground. I more out of fear than reason hurled the green meteor rock at the robot, on contact the machine faltered, losing solidity, becoming almost wax like, before staggering away.

"It ran, a broken confused stumble of a run, away from us and apparently my green rock, then as it cleared the field it appeared to grow stronger. I suppose it was at this juncture that my father made the connection. We returned to our helicopter, and attempted to follow. The machines path away from us at first appeared haphazard, but it was not – rather it was deliberate. The alien was avoiding the pock marked landscape, the craters where the green glowing meteorites had come to rest.

"Long story short Miss Faulkner the Luthor Corp chopper lost then reacquired the target, a team was dispatched carrying hastily collected Meteorites – Substance K, and like brute apes they tossed these into the path of the thing from another world, where assault rifles failed, rocks succeeded, and it collapsed, coalesced changing form into the the simple shape you see on screen, from that day, it has been continually exposed to Substance K, and remains inactive providing the background K radiation levels are maintained."

Doctor Karen Faulkner felt both relieved and vindicated, she had made the right call. "You think the Kent individual might have some connection to the alien device?"

Luthor shrugged. "That is for you to determine, but I don't like coincidences, especially when they are connected to Substance K."

-'*'-

Diana Prince sat in the interview room in the FBI's Kansas City Field Office. She was still in standard issue urban grey combat jump suit. Clark Kent wore jeans a red checked shirt and cowboy boots, and his glasses. Next to him was his Lawyer, his suit was expensive enough to mean his time didn't come cheap. The Kents maybe from Smallville but they were prepared to pay big city fees.

"Do you recognise me?" She began.

Clark looked at her blankly. "I don't understand why I was arrested."

Evasion Diana thought, he looked sad. "Why did you leave the hospital?"

"What hospital?"

"Metropolis, you know where you've being working as a bar tender?"

Clark frowned, and shook his head. "I haven't been in Metropolis in months, until the day before yesterday I was backpacking in the wilderness."

"Alone?"

"Yes – alone, there isn't a law against that is there?"

Diana made a note with her pen in the file. No, she thought, there was no law, just as there was corroboration of this wilderness trip, however it would appear a convincing story, a grief stricken widower seeks to commune with nature, to be alone.

Diana pursed her lips and shook her head. "No, there is no law, common sense would advise against it however. To last night, can you tell me again where you were?"

Clark sighed, ruffling his dark hair, he had clearly gone over this more than once with the FBI. "Last night I read a book, watched some TV, and went to bed, at least until the FBI came knocking, waking us all up, taking us all in, and bringing us out here." He kept the answer brief, his face spoke of exasperation, Diana felt he was frustrated, but it was more primal than it seemed.

"Yes Mr Kent, your parents have said as much." Diana's pen slid down the side of the typed script, the Kent's statements tallied.

He folded his arms. "If I was in Metropolis last night, how was I in Smallville, how was I in two places at once?"

Diana felt surprised, gone was the sense of evasion, in it's place honesty, it was as if Clark didn't know himself. Perhaps she realised, he didn't.

"Agent Prince." Kent's Lawyer began, Mitchell Shelley was originally from South Carolina, but had made his reputation in the Mid West defending those afflicted by Substance K complications.

"It's clear you have a case of mistaken identity, my client has witnesses, his parents, that place him at home when you claim he was in Metropolis, then Federal officers found him at this address some 90 minutes after you say your suspect went missing, now even if he had a corporate jet on standby, he'd not make it home."

Diana Prince slid across photographs of Clark Kent taken hours before in Metropolis. "Who is this then?"

"I agree the resemblance is striking, but that is all it is, identity theft is not uncommon." Shelly said dismissively pushing the pictures away. "Clearly whoever this is chose to pass themselves off as my client, perhaps based on the strong resemblance to him."

Shelley smiled.

"I have a warrant for a DNA sample." Diana told him, she passed across the stick for Clark to swab his mouth. As he took it from her, she grabbed his left hand, he tensed, he was strong, but he didn't fight her, and yet for a moment she felt it, for a split second he had misjudged his own strength, if she had been a mere mortal he could have broken her arm. Diana rubbed the flesh of his hand with her thumb, it was perfectly smooth. "That's nice." He said. "But I don't see how it helps." He swabbed his mouth placing the stick back into the plastic container and past this back to her.

"Thank you." She said. Looking across to the one way mirror she nodded.

After a brief pause she continued, knowing Sarge Steel had killed the recording equipment.

"Cards on the table gentlemen." Diana began. "I suspect we all know that there are individuals able to do exactly what you Mr Shelley described as impossible, no jet required."

"Agent Prince, the media tends to exaggerate the abilities of the meteor rock afflicted..."

"Mr Shelley, let's not do this. I know you know about Red Letter Metahumans."  
Clark asked. "Red Letter?"

"Like the bible Mr Kent, when Jesus speaks, they print his words in red. In this context, we mean individuals with god like abilities, far and above the normal run of the mill troubled individuals who form the bulk of my Agency's day to day business."

Shelley turned to Clark. "Mr Kent I'd advise you to say nothing." To Agent Prince he said directly. "Either charge my client, or we are leaving."

"Mr Shelley..."

"Agent Prince, the last ten years has seen massive inroads into civil liberties, terrorism, and meta-crime, have been blurred into a single threat and used to justify draconian powers, but the times are a changing, the people have had enough of this Federal creep. Not everybody with abilities are a threat, not everyone views them as an affliction, these people are not a problem, in many cases they are a solution."

"I.."

"Well do you mean to charge Mr Kent?" Shelley banged the table.  
"Not at this time. No."  
"Let's go." The Lawyer said to Clark, and he stood up to leave, his client followed.

Diana whispered pitching her voice beyond human norms. "If I had been a normal girl, you would have hurt me when I took your hand, you're doing well amazingly well for someone whose abilities have kicked in overnight, but you are a danger to yourself and others, Clark - please you have to let me help you."

Clark Kent stopped.

Had he heard her?

Kent looked toward Shelley, the Lawyer hadn't paused, and rightly so, he had not heard Diana's voice. Diana could hear Clark's heartbeat accelerate, then as he reached the door he turned back at the last moment, his blue eyes met hers, twin cerulean pools mirrored each other and he nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

"Can I get you you coffee?"

"Please." Clark Kent watched Diana pour him a cup. Her apartment wasn't what he expected, to be honest he didn't know what to expect, Diana had insisted he return with her to Metropolis, and given the remarkable private exchange they had shared he had decided to trust her. Now she ushered him into her home he was struck by the bright colours – furnished by material draped decoratively from the walls and the furniture itself, contrasting with the minimalist modern white walls, the overall effect seemed other worldly.

Diana's startling blue eyes rested on him deliberately. "So whose idea was it - the lies?"

Clark took the fluted mug from her with a smile, the rich smell of fresh coffee had new depths given his heightened senses. Her accusation pricked his conscience and he answered defiantly. "When you grew up in Meteorite County, Kansas, when it comes to Meteor rock business, you learn to be economical with truth, that is if you cherish your freedom."

Diana sat across from him, she lent forward, placing her cup on the marble coffee table, pushing her rich dark locks back from her face she pleaded with him using her eyes. "Come on I've been honest with you – helped you."

"Yes you have, I don't quite understand why."

"You've demonstrated that you're a Metahuman." Diana said with an expressive shrug.

"And so have you." Clark countered.

She smiled. "Then we're in this together. - A problem shared is a problem halved."

"But we're not. You are DOMA, I'm just a guy from the boondocks, who woke up one day as a meteor freak, like I said in Kansas, in Smallville we know what the government does with Meteor Freaks. Or at least I thought I did."

Diana leant back and crossed her legs. "What do you mean?"

Clark felt she was offended by his hostility, so he told her what he thought. "To catch a thief, set a thief."

Diana nodded. "Touché, but you are here... I mean despite the hard time you're giving me, and after the FBI crashed your farm I don't blame you, but you are here – so you must at least have decided to trust me, on one level at least."

"I guess so, but truthfully I'm not sure why I am here." Clark acknowledged, he relaxed suddenly letting out an exasperated sigh. "I guess I don't have a choice, you worked out I was faking in the interview – and yet you didn't let your superiors know – why was that?"

Diana reached out to him, touching his hand. "Clark, it's not all bad. Not everybody at DOMA believes Metahumans are a threat."

"Clearly, otherwise we'd both be institutionalised, but on the other hand our government was knocking my door down just because DOMA suspected I was a Metahuman, and it's obvious that we're having this talk in private – I mean not in your office, this is under the radar isn't it?"

Diana sighed in agreement. "I'm not going to pretend we can operate in the open, yet, but Metahumans can make a difference – _I am_ making a difference."

Clark looked into Diana's fervent eyes, and he found himself believing, at least in her – that she believed it, and meant it – of this much he was sure.

She fluttered her eyes as she turned away, self conscious perhaps about her own intensity, breaking the brief silence with a direct question to him. "How did you get home?"

"Honestly?"

"That would be a start."

Clark nodded. Internally he had already made his decision. "I don't know. I woke up at home, in my old room."

"You're kidding."

"No I'm not. I don't know how I got there."

"That is a little scary to be honest."

"You're telling me."

"What have you noticed – changes I mean?"

Clark held out his hands and shook his head. "So many to be honest I can hardly keep track of what I can do.

"I'm stronger, quicker, it's like..." He paused searching for an analogy. "Like something that has been out of focus for a long time is slowly becoming clear." He took off his glasses laughing. "I mean these are meaningless, for years I've been short sighted, now I can see clearly, more than clearly, it's a progressive thing."

Diana noticed Clark blush. He felt it happen, felt himself flush like some self conscious teenager, and he shifted his position, while she leant her head to one side slightly puzzled by his distracted reaction, but Clark didn't confess the reason, the full extent of his clarity of vision. He was sure she would be shocked if he did.

"It maybe you are still adjusting to the changes in your metabolism." She ventured eventually.

"Perhaps." He drained his coffee, the temperature was no longer a consideration he realised.

"So what now?" Diana asked.

Clark shrugged. "I haven't thought that far ahead, you rather err, upset any plans I had when you spoke to me and me only."

Diana shook her head. "No, I mean do you intend to stick to the lies? Are you going to pretend to be something you're not – to everybody, forever?"

Clark kicked back and sank into the couch. "I don't know – I honestly hadn't thought about it.

"Look Diana last thing I remember is you, then I wake up in my old bed, y'know I just found myself back in Smallville – with no recollection of how I got from Metropolis to there, all I know is I don't want to be sectioned. Since the Meteor shower hit the midwest I've seen too many people taken into care for their – and that of the community's safety."

"I appreciate that Clark." Diana replied. "But you have to realise that Metahumans aren't a product of that event, oh don't get me wrong – there is a link, but there has always been exceptional individuals – just right now there are more of them."

"And that's down to the Meteorites."

"Well yes."

"Why – how, can someone like you.."

Diana interrupted. "Like us."

"Okay – Like us. How can _you_ work for Metahuman Affairs."

Diana uncrossed her legs. She looked at him. "Because someone has to be on the inside trying to make the world a better place."

"Why you?"  
She laughed. "Would you believe because the gods of Olympus chose me for this?"

He chuckled, but stopped, the expression on her face made him. "You are serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"But Greek gods?"

"Mr Kent, the universe is not stranger than we imagine.."

"It is stranger than we can imagine." Clark finished her sentence. He let this explanation slide for now, there were more pressing concerns. "Okay so why would anyone on the side of the angels side _with_ Metahuman affairs, they have to be the most illiberal division of Homeland Security?"

"I can't change the system by myself Clark. I have to work where I can, from the inside to get to people like you before _they_ do."

"Who are they?"

"The real power behind the throne." Diana said. "Look Clark when I came to America from Themyscira I expected this country to be an evil empire run by men for men. What I discovered is that this is only half the truth, I met people – good people, people like you who were committed to truth and justice, I realised that America, the world as a whole was on a knife edge, that it could fall into the abyss – the very thing I feared, my people feared, what they sent me out into the world to stop, but equally this country could lead the world in a freer and fairer age."

"Okay let's say I buy into this saving the world agenda, just who are these good people?"

"I think you'll have to meet them."

-'*'-

Clark felt uncomfortable in the presence of the elite of Metropolis society. "Who is that?" He asked Diana. The pretty brunette hung on the arm of the Director of Metahuman Affairs, the angular featured Lex Luthor.

"Lois Lane." She told him. "She is a reporter for the Daily Planet."

The charity evening was a gala event the headlining acts were the indie rock band Black Canary, and the Magician Zatana. Clark had been stunned when Diana had told him this was going to be vehicle for his introduction to the 'good people' Diana worked with. To him it seemed the worst place in the world for a secret organisation to gather, in the full public glare of so many leading members of society and the chattering classes in one place.

For a boy from the farm he felt a little overawed, but he liked it, he knew the rented Tuxedo wasn't the best fitting suit, but he still felt a million dollars, even more so to have a woman as stunning as Diana on his arm, her dress was simple and conservative by the glittering standards of others, including the Lane woman, but she had the ineffable quality that meant like the late great Marilyn Monroe, Diana would have looked devastatingly sexy in a potato sack.

The Metropolis Theatre Imperial had seen many varied acts on its stage, tonight it rocked to the hard beat of the Black Canary, whose vocals vibrated the very foundations of the building, Clark's enhanced abilities meant he understood that something profound and superhuman was at work, but then again Dinah Lance was a high profile Meta' – something that had both enhanced and hurt her reputation in equal measure.

Later as the night drew to a close, and the great and the good made their way out of the theatre many to waiting limousines, but Diana led Clark from the mid ranking seats she had secured for them backstage. She told the minders in between that she had an appointment with the Magician Zatana, that and the fact she flashed her DOMA identification. As a federal agent Diana was waved through back stage with little fuss, Clark duly followed unchallenged.

Behind the gilded and ordered exterior people hustled around breaking down the props and support equipment for the acts, among the chaos bouquets of cut flowers lay strewn around. Clark stopped to smell the roses, he had been stunned by the incredible feats of magic the young woman Zatara had performed, and knowing something of the art, he was baffled, even with his enhanced senses, to understand how she had done the things he had seen. There was only conclusion he could reach as Sherlock Holmes had said, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Clark realised Zatana's tricks _were_ impossible, she therefore must perform genuine magic cleverly disguised as illusion.

Meanwhile Diana pushed on deeper into the bowels of the theatre. No one challenged her confident approach, and she led Clark under the stage to sub basement. To his surprise in the half light a group of very recognisable people had assembled. It then struck him, the method in the madness, the reason Diana had insisted he accompany her to this event.

"I'd like you to meet them members of our Justice league, Dinah Lance I'm sure you'll know."

"Yes I saw you on stage, I liked your cover of Gold Dust Woman, although I'm more familiar with your dark hair." Clark pointed out her change of colour, from raven to gold.

"Stage performance demands a certain theatricality." She tossed her blonde locks back across her dark jacket, other than the startling change from Gothic black to Marilyn blonde, Dinah wore her stage costume, tight fitting black bodice and tights.

"You are a licensed Metahuman?" Clark asked coming directly to the point, the thing that troubled him the most.

"I've been vetted and tagged, if that's what you mean." Dinah's musical laughter was both beautiful and hollow at the same time.

With a hint of desperation the farmer from Kansas asked. "But they've let you live your life..."

"No Clark." She told him. "They couldn't lock me away – too damn high profile to be institutionalised, if half of what Diana tells me about you is true, you can forget going home to the farm, those days are done for you."

Clark folded his arms. He wasn't surprised by Dinah's hostility – it wasn't directed at him, but at those who saw people like her – like him as a threat.

"Dinah represents the Metahuman's." Diana told him.

"Because the rest of us have dropped off the face of the Earth." The Black Canary told him as Diana gestured across to another familiar face.

"Likewise, I'm sure you'll also know Miss Zatana Zatara."

Clark smiled and bowed low, with a flick of his wrist he presented her a flower. One he had pocketed earlier. Zatana laughed, tipping her top hat, she too was in costume, hers a mix of a man's formal wear with white vest and bow tie, matched to hot pants and fishnets. "I hadn't expected such accomplished prestidigitation."

Diana looked at Clark with equal surprise. Clearly neither had she.

"I practised magic as a boy."

A voice from the shadows. "Zatana is our representative from the Homo Magi. I gather from your slight of hand display you are _not_ magical by nature?"

Clark scanned the shadows, the unlimited reach of his vision still surprised him, and he recognised the face of a solidly built dark haired man, who would have otherwise been nearly invisible in the dark, he used the shadows cleverly. The man managed to look casual in what was self evidently a very expensive tuxedo, but Clark recognised his face, and found images coming to his mind from his memory. This was the scion of the Wayne family, industrialists, philanthropists and in him, in Bruce Wayne the sole heir they had been rewarded with an outrageous playboy. Clark remembered his face from the gossip pages, rather than in the business section of internet new portals Clark browsed out of habit.

Bruce had also confirmed his earlier conclusion, Zatana Zatara used real magic.

Diana again introduced Gotham's infamous Playboy. "The Dark Knight represents humans here."

Clark allowed Bruce to continue to hide behind his nome de plume. Diana continued. "Along with the Green Arrow." Clark saw another man, this time his cocky self assured manner was more obvious, he did not try to hide his strong features outlined by a sharp blond beard. Again Clark's mind surprised him, neurons fired, freed of the perverse poison of Substance K and he recognised Oliver Queen, another billionaire, and environmental activist. Diana's league was short of neither notoriety nor money, it seemed a odd collection of the famous and influential, only Agent Prince seemed to genuinely hide in plain sight, the others had by accident or design found themselves in the public eye. Her continuing presence was a reassurance to him, it was strange to think of her as ordinary, no one as stunningly beautiful as Diana could be described as ordinary, but in the company of a Rock Star, a Magician who topped the billing in Vegas, and two of the top names from the Forbes 100 rich list Agent Prince was suddenly his touchstone to normality.

Clark saw that meeting at this Charity Gala was an obvious way for these important people to be in the same place at once, no one would question the coincidence, it was slight of hand, distract and obfuscate.

"I feel out of place." He said. "I'm just a boy from Kansas, I know cows and corn. I really don't know what I can do for you people."

"You are a cowboy certainly." The new speaker emerged from the shadows in a way Clark could not fathom, it seemed to him that she emerged from the wall itself from formlessness into form. She tapped her head as she stepped under the single bare and faint electric bulb.

"Joan Jones. Metropolis PD." She said. "But truthfully I am Jo J'onzz native of Mars, and your thoughts are clear and truthful. You are an honourable man Clark Kent."

"Mars?" Clark blustered. Not even challenging Joan on her claims of telepathy, coming from Meteorite County, Kansas meant his generation took such claims in their stride – the once remarkable had become everyday, acknowledged but unspoken. "Mars hasn't life? Maybe bacteria, but nothing,..." Clark paused uncertain, " ...nothing like you."

"Don't you believe in Aliens Mr Kent?"

"I don't disbelieve, that would be presumptive, I mean the universe is a very big place."

Joan smiled. "But a practical man requires evidence?" With these words the Police detective morphed and changed into something very alien, angular and impossible, then the pattern shifted into something more human, more recognisable, but still very green.

Instinctively Clark ordered what he had seen, time slowed for him as she changed, what was a moment to human perception was to his mind an opportunity to reflect and consider.

"Wait you aren't human, the first shape was you – and this form..."

"Is something I choose to use." Joan admitted. "I find a more human shape eases my relationship with humans without fully betraying my true nature."

"I understand." Clark replied. "People are not accepting. I guess you represent the alien's among us?" He asked.

"I do, and until today I was very much alone."

"What do you mean?"

"I know you don't remember, that much I can read from you, but Kal-El but you are as Alien as I."


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm an alien?" Clark ran his hand through his hair. He stood with Jo Jones in the Theatre Imperial's basement, the other league members had left him and Martian Manhunter alone.

"Is that so remarkable?" Jo asked.

"Frankly yes." Clark chuckled. The very idea seemed absurd to him. "I mean look at me!"

Jo's face creased expressively. "Because I am green it makes it easier for you to accept I'm not from this world?"

"Yes. I guess, but I've also glimpsed your true form, and that's more alien still, but I'm very human."

Jo laughed. "You're clearly more than human in many many ways."

"Meta-human then." He turned away angrily, wanting to dismiss this strange woman's story, and yet a unremembered memory seemed to haunt his certainty.

"You are an adopted son of the Kents, Clark is an adopted name."

He rounded on the green Martian. "How do you know that?" He stopped realising that Diana must have access to that information. He sighed closing his eyes. "I am human." He said almost to himself.

Jo shook her head. "It is a mystery why there are diverse humanoid species across the galaxy, there must be a rational explanation for this, a common origin or originator, however I have no doubt your parents sent you to this world precisely because, perhaps more than any other humanoid species Earthling and Kryptonians are indistinguishable – except at the sub-cellular level, a difference which means you are millions of years more evolved."

Clark folded his arms, and looked grave. "Now hang on Joan or whatever you're called, how come you can say that, call me Kal-Whatever, say I'm some orphan from another world – I mean how do you know?"

"Because I can read your mind – because as an ancient people my race knew yours, the signature of your Kryptonian mind distinguishes your species, it is more distinctive than something as superficial as the colours of hair and skin."

"You can read my thoughts – am I an open book to you?"

"No, not like a book, it is not as simple or as clear as the printed page, but thoughts are more subtle - as in shades of colour, or say delicate like a fragrance. Forgive me, English and humans don't have the words and experience to express the sensations of telepathy, since this sense is rare among you.

"Truth be told Kal-El, I see a darkness in your mind, you have forgotten the horror of your loss – as often is the case with trauma, however that untouched part of your mind now yearns to be heard, for a telepath like myself your subconscious is shouting."

"Very well – let's say for the sake of argument I entertain this idea, what I don't understand – is why would my birth parents abandon me here?"

For a moment Joan Jones – Jo J'onzz appeared conflicted, then she answered plainly.

"You and I are alike Kal-El, we are the last surviving examples of our race."

"What?"

"Krypton was destroyed, torn asunder, you alone escaped, you are Krypton's last son."

-'S'-

Diana drove the black Suburban through the brightly lit streets of the Metropolis night. Clark sat next to her silent and subdued.

Finally he spoked to her. "I suspect my ears should be burning."

"The League know how I feel." She agreed. Diana had left him with Jo J'onzz to plead his case before the others – she wanted them to help her help him, to guide him and keep him safe. Diana continued. "Jo made her voice heard too - you should be part of what we're doing."

"Perhaps." Clark looked out of the window once more.

"Joan will come over to mine when they're done."  
"Yes she said she wanted to talk to me more."

"I sense your not happy about that."

"I'm not."

"Clark for what it's worth I don't feel any different about you knowing that your from another world."

"I'm not sure what to believe Diana. I've always known I was adopted – but that I'm from another world. I'm not sure what to make of that."

"What did the Kent's tell you?"

"That I was found abandoned by the roadside during the chaos that followed the Meteor shower, despite appeals for my mother to come forward, for anyone that knew me – no one did. My parents were already trying to adopt, and they went through the normal rigmarole associated with that, and in due course raised me."

"So you have no idea where you are from."

"No – but it's a huge leap from being a foundling to being an abandoned alien."

"Just how far can you leap Clark? Tall buildings in a single bound? How fast can you move? Is it really so incredible? Look Jo knows about a number of alien races, many are humanoid, some would even pass for human, and a handful are human, in every way that matters."

"It's just not what I expected – any of this."

Diana shrugged, and pulled the car to a halt. "I'm sorry about that Clark, but you don't strike me as a person that would shirk their responsibilities."

Clark seemed lost in thought, or he had no answer for her.

"Are you coming?" She said. "Or am I going to turn my back and find you've done another midnight flit?"

"I guess. I don't think running back to Smallville will help my cause."

Diana couldn't agree more.

He laughed.

"What is so funny" Diana asked as she opened the main door to her complex.

"I kind of imagine that it's the guys who are usually begging you to let them in, rather than you asking them too."

"Do you think?" She said seriously.

"Perhaps you don't have the time?"

"Perhaps I don't." There was truth in her answer, but as often the case, what was left unsaid dominated her thoughts as she led him inside her home.

Bruce, Ollie among others had been here, but Clark was different, for all their remarkable qualities the human members of the League were just that, albeit the sum of human power and endeavour, by her own Amazon standards they were but weak and delicate babes, for the first time Diana realised she was in the presence of a being who was potentially her physical equal.

She felt her heart race, was this how her Mother had felt in the presence of the demigod Hercules? That had turned out badly, but the son of Zeus was already walking his own terrible and tragic road. Clark – Kal-El, the last son of Krypton had known tragedy too, she wondered how the loss of his first his wife and now as his powers grew, the loss of his once normal life would effect this cowboy from Kansas.

Intuitively Diana let the former farmer brood, he sat in silence, and she respected his need to withdraw into his primal mental cave, to contemplate his situation.

Seated at her desk she accessed the DOMA server from her PC and checked the status of the Kent file.

Switching to her private account she checked her League inbox. A coded message from the Watchtower confirmed that the DNA sample she had taken had been diverted surreptitiously. The FBI contracted the testing to a division of Wayne Bio-Tech, making the exchange easy for Bruce to arrange. Diana had no idea whose biometrics had been substituted for Clark's but the bottom line was DOMA would be informed Kent was a regular homosapien. For the record Watchtower noted that Kent's real sample was a dud, the swab had failed to abrase a single cheek cell, and Diana's own scientific curiosity was engaged, she wondered about the extent of Kent's invulnerability. In the brief time she had spent with Jo J'onzz after speaking on Clark's behalf to the other League members, the Martian Manhunter had told her what she could expect of the solar charged Kryptonian, and Diana had been dumbstruck, if only half of what the histories recorded about this race was true, she now understood why as a people they had elected to remain on their home world. Diana sighed.

"Pardon?" Clark asked.

Had she spoken out loud, she realised even moving her lips and letting out the most silent of breaths would be enough. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." She repeated herself.

"It strikes me that your league has more than enough power."

"Which is balanced, first each one against the other, and against the industrio-political hegemony of Patriarchs World."

"That sounds very feminist."

"Is that a problem?"

"No – I'm just trying to see where two alpha males like Wayne and Queen fit into that – aren't they industrialists, haven't they a dozen or so lobbyists in their pockets on the hill?"

"Industry is not good or evil, just like a knife is essential on the one hand in the kitchen, but deadly in the other."

Clark did not disagree with her analogy, instead he changed tack. "What do you know about my people?" He asked. "The Kryptonians – what were they like?"

"I know very little, they were a secretive people, but Jo told me that your race chose to live on a world so hostile no other sentient life dare approach, that no one else but they could live in such an environment, where radiation and gravity nullified there great powers making them human once more."

"Why would they do that?"  
"Because your ancestors wished to pursue peace and knowledge above all else, they wished to remove the temptation to become gods among lesser beings, instead to concentrate on science, to use technology to explore the universe remotely."

"A temptation to become gods? Is that what you expect me to become – a god on Earth?" Clark was incredulous, there was sadness and anger, yet through this turmoil was stubborn determination. "Isn't that what an avatar of the Greek gods would expect?" He looked at her expectantly.

Diana shook her head. "I am emissary – a representative – sent to bring peace, to use wise judgement and my own intelligence and intuition. Clark, you and I are not so different. My people are individually powerful, functionally immortal, and they too chose to retreat from the world."  
"Why?"

"For much the same reasons as the Kryptonians – as best I can gather." Diana went on to explain to Clark the history of the Amazons, how they were an immortal race of women chosen by the goddesses of Olympus, how Ares had incited the demigod Hercules to wage war against them, how they had been defeated by treachery not might, only to rise up and defeat their captors and flee the jealous and violent world of men to a hidden paradise island of Themyscira. "You see Clark for Kryptonians and Amazons power, there was envy; envy seems universal among sentient life. This jealousy made our respective peoples targets of hate. It was this ever present threat of conflict as much as fear of abusing our power that led our respective peoples to choose isolation over engagement with others."

"But you have chose to engage, to come to – what you call, Patriarchs World?"

"Isn't that the point Clark, we have been given a choice, we can choose to use our powers not to judge and condemn as gods must, but to reach out and save, to serve our fellow human beings."

The voice of the Martian Manhunter interrupted. "Wise words. Princess Diana of the Amazons, you honour your patron Athena."

"Princess?" Clark mouthed – stunned.

Diana blushed. "Yes." She said unashamedly. "It was my Mother who Hercules beguiled. I am Hippolyta's daughter."

Clark shook his head absorbing the implications, the centuries of history and myth that lay between him and the Amazons.

Diana reached out to Clark, but he drew back crossing his legs, taking hold of the left cowboy boot as he brought his leg between them. She realised that he had first bonded to her as a person, just another pretty girl in bar in Metropolis. Then later he had seen her as an ally, someone real and tangible among a collective of extraordinary, and save for the policewoman the Martian Manhunter pretended to be, relatively famous people. Now she had revealed herself as royalty, and she feared her birth right had snatched from Clark any sense that there was common ground between them. Diana could not resent the truth, she was if anything it's avatar, but she knew the truth could be cold and hard like steel, and she hoped Clark was man enough to take it.

The farmer from Kansas, who was also an Alien from a dead world turned to Joan Jones as the Martian Manhunter now appeared, normal in every way save her method of arrival, passing through solid walls reaffirmed her alien powers even if her human face and street clothes did not.

"I assume you are here to tell me what the others have decided?"  
Joan nodded. "You are for the time being under the League's protection."

"I not sure what that means."

"It means Diana has volunteered to steer you through the difficult business of adapting to your powers."

"While keeping an eye on me, making sure I don't go over to the dark side."

"I am confident that you will not." Joan replied without emotion. To Diana she said. "Princess I believe your people hold the key to Kal-El, so that Clark can remember what he has forgotten, so that he can finally become a complete person."

"Forgive me Jo J'onzz but I quite resent the implication that I am incomplete."

"Mr Kent." Joan replied formally. "You cannot pretend that as an adopted child you have never once thought about your birth parents, wondered about your heritage, questioned why a baby was found beside a road to all intents and purposes abandoned?"

Clark shook his head. "I won't lie to you – of course I have."

"Then let Diana help you remember."


	5. Chapter 5

"How long has it been?" Ollie asked.

Bruce Wayne looked up from the video feed. "Coming up four months." Ahead of him were a bank of monitors.

"Long time. Still no change in the Cowboy's status?"

"See for yourself."

Oliver Queen looked over the feed from the Watchtower remote camera. Clark Kent lay comatose on a slab, as far as Queen could tell by looking at him, he could have been a corpse. "Where is he?"

"Still in our Kansas facility." Bruce replied, kicking back he brought up a map on another monitor.

"Diana still blaming herself?"

Bruce nodded. "You got my memo then?"

"Eventually."

Oliver lent over reversed pinched the touch screen, the camera panned out and the larger view revealed the underground facility. "So this is where Diana set up the Purple Ray." He noted.

"She had good reason to believe it would cure Kent's amnesia."

"It worked for Jo." Queen acknowledged.

"Yeah, but the Amazons let Diana take her to Themyscira after she recovered her from the fire, apparently Kent's case is different."

Queen laughed. "Let me guess – Diana's sisters weren't too keen on Jo's idea, I mean having a male of unknown abilities on their Island, it's against all their rules isn't it?"

Bruce turned the chair around pressing his fingers together. "Well Mr Queen we know how the balance in our world is currently more yin than yang."

The Green Arrow laughed. "Yeah tell me about it brother." He reached into his pocket and past over a flash drive. "Here's what I've been doing for the last four months – how's your side of our pet project?"

"I'm hoping your data will illuminate the darkness." Bruce replied, inserting memory stick.

Oliver laughed. "I see what you did there Bruce – that was almost a joke."

"There are two sides to every coin – so my late father would say, hopefully your research and mine are exactly that – different faces of the same problem."

"Hey the Kent feed has gone down." Oliver exclaimed. The relevant screen was now showing static.

Bruce dialled back the last few seconds of footage.

Together observed the last seconds frame by frame, the door to chamber housing Kent opened. "That's Zatanna, Diana and Jo entering the room." Queen stated. "What do you think is going on?"

"I have no idea." Bruce replied.

-'*'-

"Did you have to open the box right away?" Diana asked.

Zatanna Zatara, shrugged, adjusting her top hat. "I didn't fly all the way directly from Vegas with a hot lump of Meteor Rock just to hang around. This will either work or it won't"

"If you're correct." Jo Jones observed.

"It conforms to the law of association, the second law of magic."

Diana folded her arms. "It's the best idea we've had – at least we know that Kent has reacted to the meteorite sample before."

"Perhaps we should try it closer?" Zatanna asked walking towards the prone man.

Jo checked the heart and respiration monitors. "This equipment is going haywire."

"That's new."

The Martian Manhunter said. "I'm sensing something, something I didn't or couldn't detect previously"

"Why?" Diana asked. "What can you perceive?"

Jo attempted to reboot the computer, talking as she worked. "There are strange images in Kent's mind." Jo commented, adding. "This equipment failure could be a feed back loop between Kent and the Meteorite."

Diana checked her Amazonian device, it resembled a steam-punk'd old style television camera. "Perhaps you are right Jo the Purple Ray is not functional – but this level of technical interference just raises more questions."

Zatanna drew closer, in her hands the tiny lead chest was open and the green crystalline rock seemed to glow and pulse with energy.

Clark Kent suddenly twitched and bucked against the hospital bed on which he lay, restraining straps snapped. Zatara closed the box quickly. "That was a reaction." She noted.

"RAO!" Kent gasped, if Diana had not reacted throwing up her bracelets locking the vambraces together creating a wider defensive field the shout would have shook her and Zatanna to the core.

Around them the underground installation trembled from the vibration of his cry. Jo J'onzz was fine phasing from solid to translucent.

"They sure built these old cold war missile silo's solidly." Zatanna said.

"Had to survive a direct strike." The Martian Manhunter agreed, while watching the Clark slowly rise yanking himself free of the electrical monitoring senses.

"Where am I?" he gasped. "Diana... what's going on?"

Lex Luthor relaxed in the hot bubbles of his decadently large jacuzzi, a beautiful woman stroked his face, letting her long fingers caress his bald pate. His eyes suddenly burst wide open, his hand burst from the water, the Rolex at his wrist vibrated it's face uncharacteristically a luminescent red, throbbing – flashing a warning, diving forward Lex tumbles forward from the water, the young lady behind screams in protest, her shrill call cut short as she falls, sending froth and foam in waves over the shell like tub's edge onto the marble floor, disappearing before flaying spluttering her protests in colourful four letter expletives.

Lex hits the wall of the room with his palm, the hidden touch sensitive screen reacts, and the wall goes live. Luthor looks at the live feed from Area 51 and adds his own whispered curse.

The President of United States welcomed the Director of Metahuman Affairs into the Oval Office.

"Mr Luthor it appears this meeting is long over due." The President stated tapping the screen of his tablet, he flicked through the images from Area 51."

"Thank you for seeing me at such short notice Mr President, I am aware you have been busy dealing with an economic crises and an intransigent Congress."

"I dare say President Truman faced the same kind of problems when he was presented with the events that necessitated the creation of Area 51 in the first place.

"I've been reviewing the report, there is no explanation as to why – after a quarter century of inactivity, the Smallville artefact should have done this." The President expertly interfaced with his PDA and Oval Office Plasma screen engaged displaying the Area 51 hanger, Luthor had watched the tape over many times, but he still found himself drawn to the scene once more. The time stamp progressed, he recognised the moment his custom watch had alerted him, the alien object had begun to shimmer, still bathed in the green light from the glowing Smallville incident meteor samples, the mercury surface of the tear drop shaped artefact shivered as if it were organic – alive.

"How large is it?" The President asked.

Lex almost gave the answer in litres, but he knew that was already in the file, in a split second he converted it to something more meaningful. "Man sized, literally Mr President, if you took the volume of an average human and rendered into a spheroid."

"Hmm surely that can't be coincidental."

Lex nodded. "That is my opinion Sir."

"What does this activity might mean – how does this effects the security of the United States? On the face it this artefact continues to appear benign."

Lex understood the implication, why had the Head of DOMA insisted on this emergency conference with his Commander in Chief.

"May I speak frankly Mr President."

"By all means – that's why your here."

"I suspect Sir, that this is an attack on the United States of America. No, more than that and attack on the Earth itself."

"Forgive me, but Dr's Bates and Buckler of S.T.A.R Labs consider the Smallville event to be an accident – they're analysis at the time interprets no threat."

Luthor laughed. "Based on what? The inactivity of the artefact." He stabbed his finger towards the video of the shimmering mercurial tear drop. "The events from Area 51 suggest they are optimistic."

"I don't see it." The President stated. " Honestly, I'm more concerned with the fallout from the Smallville incident, than the artefact itself – I find these reports that extremist groups are actively attempting to weaponise substance K – to control it, very worrying."

Luthor sighed, and with a calmer voice stated. "Mr President you are correct, that is very worrying – as is the effect of Substance K on terrestrial life."

The President consulted the tablet on his desk. "Bates and Butler later report categorises Substance K along with other radioactive elements, noting it's potential for harm as well as good – these are consequence we've lived with for twenty five years."

"Mr President bare with me for one moment. Consider the vastness of space, and time. Even moving at a fraction of speed of light, at speeds we might ourselves achieve using existing technologies, we could colonise our galaxy in say ten million years.

"Now I can see you think that is a long time, but consider the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 150 million years before calamity allowed mammals to rise, a mere 65 million years ago – in a universe thousands of millions of years old, tens of millions of years is nothing at all, a bit like tens of millions dollars in comparison to our budget deficit."

"Go on." The President told him.

"I believe we are dealing with an alien intelligence whose remote probes found our planet long ago – in antiquity, now I believe Bates and Buckler were correct, accident and disaster befall us all, and in the original Roswell incident one such probe crashed."

"But the so called aliens found at the crash site proved to non-organic." The President said, checking back to the file. "Probably the same material as the later Smallville artefact."

"Yes, that is true, but our definitions of life – of organic or inorganic are actually irrelevant – meaningless when dealing with something extraterrestrial origin."

"Yet the Roswell Craft, was a mechanism."

"Undoubtedly. One we're still studying, but that in itself adds weight to my argument that the three aliens recovered at the time, which are almost identical to the Smallville artefact bar their size, are some kind advanced guard..."

"To what? An alien invasion?"

"I can understand you're incredulous Mr President, decades of inactivity between Roswell and Smallville events, and twenty five years since the meteors – it does seem I'm being a trifle over-dramatic, after all the Smallville artefact has done what? Shivered? The first signs of life since it collapsed?"

The President held up his hands in agreement.

Luthor lent forward. "Consider what does worry Homeland security, the CIA, the NSA, the fallout from that extraterrestrial accident – the meteorites – Substance K.

"For a long time I agreed with Bates and Butler's thinking - that the K radiation was the reason the Smallville artefact went inactive, that there was some kind of negative relationship.

"But the more I have worked with DOMA - the more I have seen how Substance K creates monsters, and I have realised that something far more sinister is at work.

"Mr President, Substance K has created beings with powers beyond those of mortal men. I don't believe this is a coincidence Mr President - it's evidence of a plan. So what if it has taken decades for these aliens things to show signs of life, that's no time at all given the vastness of space."

"Wait." The President grasped his argument. "Your saying the alien invasion isn't a Blitzkrieg assault, but the diametric opposite – a creeping slow invasion?"

"Exactly that. The Substance K effect is the just beginning, I don't know what kind of planet Earth will resemble in another fifty, or hundred, or a thousand years – but I can guarantee that future won't be human, it won't even be terrestrial."


	6. Chapter 6

"I'm sorry Clark." Diana said, tears of joy fell from her eyes, as he slumped back onto the bed, she leant across him. "Clark!" She asked with greater urgency.

He shook his head, blinking, fighting himself, finally hours after he had first cried out, Clark Kent looked at her, reaching out and touched her face, as if needing to be sure she was real. Diana took his hand from her cheek, and he pulled on her, dragging himself upright swinging his legs so that his feet touched the floor.

"Where am I?" He repeated.

"Kansas – our facility outside Smallville." Jo replied. The Martian Manhunter had reformed into the alien human compromise and her green skin contrasted strongly with the red and blue of her costume.

"I remember – the old minute man missile silo complex."

"Good - what else do you remember?" Diana asked.

"A Top Hat?" Clark replied with a frown.

"That would be Zatanna – she borrowed some meteor rock from some goodfellas in Las Vegas, and wanted to get it back before they noticed it had gone missing."

Clark shook his head once more. "I don't understand substance K, mixing that with organised crime on the one hand, and me on the other – that sounds really stupid."

Jo folded her arms. "Mr Kent – Kal-El, now is not the time to discuss ongoing League operations – we are more concerned with what you remember about your heritage?"

"You can't tell – I thought you could pick stuff out of my mind."

"I can try." Jo replied. "I don't usually invade another persons private thoughts unless it's necessary – pretty much like Officer Jo Jones drawing her gun."

"Okay." Clark replied ruffling his hair, he tested his legs, Diana stepped in to support him. "I'm fine your Majesty." He told her bluntly.

"Fine – you're fine, good." Diana stepped back holding up her hands apologetically. "I can tell you're pissed, and I can't blame you."

"I feel like I've been wrestling an angry bull."

Diana frowned. "Sorry about that – look there's no easy way to tell you this, but you've been unconscious for four months."

"What?"

Jo said. "Which probably explains why you feel so out of it, well that and the K exposure."

"About that – why Substance K, it put me in hospital the last time, why use it?"

Diana took this one. "Look Clark, when we exposed you to my peoples Purple Ray Device – this machine." Diana pointed to the strange camera like machine. "I believed that it would help you heal – get your memories back..."

"It did Princess! I am Kal-El of Krypton." Kal growled.

"What is the matter?" Jo asked him, stepping between him and Diana.

"I remember Jo J'onzz – all of it, every last moment, first consciousness and then birth. I remember my mother Lara's face, her gentle voice - the strong hands of my father Jor-El. How they cried when I was placed into their experimental vehicle, and how the space warping engines folded reality around me as they died - holding each other, tears pouring from their eyes. As I survived, a billion people screamed and a planet died.

"I remember their voices living on around me, talking to me as I travelled – teaching me my history, my heritage. I remember sudden unexpected pain then blackness. I awoke crying, weak and cold; alone on a road to Smallville, Kansas.

"I remember the pain of substance K exposure, the electronic screams of the vessel that had cared for me – as it suffered too."

"Where does substance K come from?" Diana asked. "Do you know?" She appealed to him and he could understand why – the meteor rock had been a blight on the world since his arrival.

"The sixty four thousand dollar question." He sighed, setting aside his grief and anger.

"Substance K, is the core of Krypton, an alien to Earth, radioactive element created by super gravity and pressure that bombarded the surface of my world, filtered through miles of superheated rock, the background K radiation was high enough in conjunction with the high gravity and intense solar bombardment to render my people powerless, reverting them to their primeval weaknesses – making them human again."

"Then somehow substance K came with you to Earth?" Jo concluded.

"I don't know – my space ship was folding space as Krypton exploded, I guess this must have dragged in the core material, whatever happened – happened.

"My turn Princess - why did you, Jo, Zatanna – whoever - zap me with K here and now?"

"Isn't it obvious." Diana replied. "We'd run out of options. Couldn't inject your super hide so that ruled out anything chemical, you proved impervious to electrical stimulus, every other kind of radiation – we had run out of options."

"Worse case scenario." Jo interjected. "Reintroducing the K reverted you – took you back to standard human, then we could at least work on you with conventional medicines."

"Kal?" Diana began uncertain which name to use. "Were you told why your people abandoned their superpowers – chose to live in such a hostile place."

She saw him twitch uncomfortably, imperceptible to anyone but her and Jo. "It's a dark chapter in our history." Kal's eyes flickered over to the Martian Manhunter. "We were observers – scientists and engineers, we didn't involve ourselves in the lives of other sentient species, or interfere with other life forms evolution. It was a principle we held."  
Diana could see Jo had detected the Kryptonian's reticence. "There was another race who did?"

Jo asked. "Whose ideology was opposed yours?"

"My people did not refuse to help others – if asked." Kal replied to the Martian.

"You were asked?" Diana suggested.

Kal sighed. "I can only tell you what I was told as a baby lost in the space between worlds. Yes there was a race of being who decided to interfere, but they went further – controlling, judging – to the point of destruction, other sentient lifeforms. So my ancestors reluctantly joined the war, knowing there was only ever going to one solution – a final solution."

"Genocide?" Diana gasped.

"Now you understand why Kryptonians disappeared from the galaxy – the price of victory was the defeat of our values, our punishment was self inflicted."

-'*'-

Zatanna walked unchallenged through the Las Vegas Casino – she carried with her the K-metal within it's lead container, checking her watch – it was the middle of the night - she felt confident that returning the stolen and tagged meteor rock would be simple enough. The Casino was active, as people gambled all night, but it was no way as busy as the conventional hours.

Her pocket vibrated, she tapped the hidden earwig, bringing online her League communicator. "Hello Bruce" She said. "Did you get the feed back up and running."

"I've been reviewing the footage." Wayne said across the encrypted signal path. "I thought you'd be glad to know Cowboy is on his feet. Did you have a nice flight by the way?"

"Your private jet was a comfortable as ever Bruce, but have you ever considered hiring a man or two, maybe a pilot, if not a cabin crew?"

"The girls didn't look after you?"

"Oh they were sweet, but I had to pass on the pole dance."

"I have an image to maintain." Bruce said. "Besides ever since Ollie had one fitted,..."

"Yeah whatever you say." Zatanna chuckled. "Like they say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." She left the glitzy Casino gaming floor, via a door marked staff only.

"Tell me about our Cowboy – is he back to err au-naturel or still exemplary?"

"Still more powerful than a locomotive. Diana and Jo are running a battery of tests at the moment."

"Bruce if I didn't know you better I'd say you sounded incredulous."

"I am, his stats' are off the chart – the Amazonian chart that is."

Zatanna mouthed a silent wow of surprise.

"TTYL Bruce – work to do." Zatanna tapped her earwig interface, stopping by a unremarkable plain door.

"Ezeerf Aremac" Zatanna whispered as she brushed her hand along the door. "Lla peels, kcolnu." She added, opening the once secured office. Inside a couple of wise guys lay slumped magically carried away by Zatanna's spell into dream land, blissfully unaware that the gorgeous dark haired woman in Top Hat, Tails coat, and fish nets was in the room.

In the Casino Security room the stationary image from the office's security camera went unnoticed. Zatanna walked over to the hidden wall safe. "elbasid." The alarm system shut down as she brushed the keypad. "Kcolnu – and open sesame." She said as the safe door opened by itself.

She took the led box from her pocket, wiping it with a collection of rainbow coloured handkerchiefs she ensured it was clean of prints before placing it inside.

"Esolc, Kcol, Elabne."

Turning she was about to leave, when the desktop monitor caught her eye, leaning over the sleeping operator, she saw the encoded instant message window.

"Morning_Star. Activation order confirm codex #i$ -$H1N"

"Harry69Hill. order confirmed – please identify objective."

"Morning_Star. +37° 14' 24.73", -115° 49' 6.81"

"Harry69Hill. alert level?"

"Morning_Star. Alpha Alpha Alpha."

"Harry69Hill WTF - triple a?"

"Morning_Star. #i$ -$H1N – A*A*A*"

"Morning_Star. Report to location await instructions."

"Morning_Star. Confirm?..."

Zatanna pulled out her phone and took a snap shot of the screen. "Bruce you still wearing your pointy ears?"

"This is Dark Knight go ahead Magician."

"Sending you a picture, some sort of code – your thing. Could lead to whoever the wiseguys are in bed with – trading the illegal K."

"Ok got it, by the way the tagged K sample is still reading bright and clear."

"A-OK."

Zatanna breezed out of the room, pausing only to peer through the solid wall into the corridor beyond. "Retanimulsnart"

Satisfied all was clear she exited, brushing the lock once more "kcol"

In Watchtower Bruce brought up the satellite coordinates, the image of the Nevada Desert zoomed in, and the Dark Knight recognised the installation instantly. He shook his head, reloaded the coordinates to make sure. Then he hit the intercom. "Ollie - Zatanna's wiseguys have just been give a job – and you're not going to believe where the target is."

-'*'-

"Where's Diana?" Kal asked the Martian Manhunter. The lounge of the Leagues underground complex was well furnished, he thought, if you could ignore the lack of windows and natural light, but then again he reflected the League had the sponsorship of a couple of the Forbes 400's top entries.

"She had to fly back to Metropolis – a girl has to work."

"And you?"

"Later – yes, Jo Jones has to work her beat."

"But for now you are baby sitting."

"To be fair – we still don't know why you entered that coma – your mind was locked down, locked in – I got a sense of it, like you were stuck in a loop."

"Yes, what I remember is darkness and confusion, you say four months, for me – well, I'd say more like four minutes."

"Interesting." Jo commented. "Did you enjoy your shower?"

Clark laughed and nodded.

"And that change of clothes Diana got for you – do they fit you okay?" Jo asked.

Kal looked at himself. "They sure fit Clark Kent." he observed. "Yep they fit perfectly." He glanced down at himself, cowboy boots in ox-blood, dark blue jeans, a red shirt, with a thin black check, and all American Stars and Stripes belt buckle. "You forgot the hat though."

Jo gestured across to the hallway. Clark didn't need to move to see what she meant, looking through the wall he saw a hat stand, there was a full length Duster coat in off white, with a matching ten gallon hat. Beyond this things got a little hazy.

"There is a lot lead in the exterior walls." He noted.

"It was built to survive a nuclear war." Jo had chosen the human-alien hybrid Martian Manhunter appearance, rather than Jo Jones Dectective – Chicago PD. Clark could recall the true alien identity of Jo J'onzz, that his enhanced senses could glimpse during the metamorphosis between these forms.

Jo interpreted his silence. "I'm sorry about Purple Ray induce coma. Diana felt terrible – responsible, she's very compassionate. For what it's worth, I'm equally – if not more to blame. I encouraged her – got the League to agree to the idea, after all it worked for me – when I had no idea who I was."

Clark sat down on the leather couch. "Why – what happened, why did you need treating with this Amazonian technology?"

"Long Story short, I was ripped across space and time, from the ancient past – from a Mars with life, to my distant future – your Earth."

"How?"

"By a well meant experiment, gone very wrong." Jo explained with a shrug. Clark let this go, there was time to explore her history more later.

Jo continued. "This experience left me confused to say the least. For a long time I wandered the streets, adapting to whatever shape or form best suited the moment. I had no idea who I was, or where I'd come from. After a while I began operating in the shadows, helping people – but like you I have a Achilles heel, unfortunately it's more common place than Substance K."

Clark nodded as he listened.

"I'm susceptible to flames, but there was building ablaze, people were dying, I couldn't stand aside and let that happen."

"So you went into help?"

"Yes but before I could get out I was caught up in an explosion – gas, it took out everything. It was Diana that pulled me from the rubble, I was alive, but my burns were terrible, I mean I was so much burnt meat – she guessed by fact I was still breathing, that I maybe wasn't a regular human. Turns out DOMA had been tracking me, they had my number as mystery-man."

"So you were given the Purple Ray treatment."

"Not at first - but I didn't respond to normal medical treatments while refusing to die as expected, So Diana broke me out and flew me to Themyscira."

"Right – that's where she is from – the hidden Island Monarchy."

"Yes – under the Purple Ray's light my body began to heal. Instinctively I took my cues from the environment I was in."

"An all female society of immortal super soldiers." Clark said, more to himself than Jo.

"Yes – becoming female made it easy for the Amazons to accept me, gradually my memories returned, long after my body recovered, I found the Purple Ray helped me regain my identity."

"So wait Jo." Clark said with a frown. "Forgive me, but are you male or female?"

The Martian Manhunter laughed. "That's very human of you – but then you are Kryptonian, you're homo-superior, millions of years more evolved than homosapien.

"Clark I'm Martian, so those terms – male / female, as polymorphs mean little to me. As it happened I was the worker-parent in my family, which in your terms would usually be the male role on Earth, but even here not always."  
Suddenly the room was lit up with flashing lights and alarm siren.

"What's happening." Clark asked.

"It's a League Emergency." Jo moved swiftly to a coms' station.

"We're being called out, there is an incident in Nevada. Details are coming through from Bruce now. He's airborne and already en-route."

"Is it Zatanna?"

Jo shook her head. "It's not Vegas, it's.. wow." Jo gasped.

"What's the matter."

"The United States Air Force is under attack."

"What?"

"Clark – it's Area 51."


	7. Chapter 7

Bruce came in low over the Nevada desert, his aircraft was coming home. The Dark Knight backed off the throttles and dropped to two thousand miles per hour, still faster than a bullet. The flying wing was black as the night, it's radar profile was nigh on invisible, still he monitored all frequencies as he entered the "Groom Box" roughly fifty square miles of restricted air space. His Jeppesen database International Civil Aviation Organization identifier flashed up code 'KXTA – Homey Airport'.

He opened a secure channel. Jo had brought with her a unique knowledge of communication technology – unfortunately her area of expertise on the distant world separated by time and space from his Earth, hadn't included free clean limitless power.

"Dark Knight to Magician, what is your position? – over."

"I'm just outside Groom Lake, there is a bunch of guys riding around in pickups toting M16's looking scared."

"I see why." Bruce said, as he banked the Wayne-Hughes Stealth Jet away from main building complex. "I'm going to bring her down onto 14R/32L"

"Come again?" Oliver Queen asked across the secure channel.

"The long one." Bruce replied.

Queen and Dinah Lance had been in Vegas together seeing Zatanna, the three of them had come out to Groom Lake together.

Bruce hit the air brakes as he altered the unique engine's thrust vector, and stalled the aircraft in flight, it snarled like a living thing as it backed up in the air, switching from horizontal flight to a vertical hover, before coming to land on the asphalt runway.

"I'm down – over." Bruce announced. "Magician – sending you a ping, can you get to my position?" he said as he exited the Jet's cockpit.

Zatanna answered by action. "Ekat em ot Ecrub." Magically she flashed out of existence – reappearing by the Dark Knight. Bruce wore his black stealth armour, he caught hold of her as Zatanna wobbled.

"Frack - teleportation always takes it out of me." She said.

"Well breaking the laws of Physics is no small thing."

"I'll be OK, just let me get my breath back – and I can _see_ you frowning behind the plas-steel mask Bruce, cut me some slack, it's like running a nine second hundred metres – I'll be back to myself in a minute."

"Good because you need to be." He pointed to an area of wasteland – or at least that's what the powers that be wanted you to think it was.

"Holy five fingered Unidentified Flying Object." Zatanna gasped.

-'*'-

Diana left Metropolis vertically, summoning the gift of Hermes, she called upon the Chariot of Apollo, and achieved escape velocity of twenty-five thousand miles per hour, nine miles up her flight course encapsulated within the invisible god-made projectile was a brief hop across the transcontinental United States. She arrived at Area-51 moments after Bruce had landed.

-'*'-

Jo and Clark Kent exited the decommissioned nuclear missile silo via the functioning launch door, as the missile it once housed would have done if ever fired in anger. Jo released Clark's hand laughing to herself.

"Kal-El I did not know you had the power of flight." Jo told him directly - her mind communicating to him, irrespective the wild rush of air around them.

"It's fair to say I just remembered." Clark replied. Jo heard his voice directed in a deliberate fashion.

She noted how his hat now lay pinned behind his dark locks, it's draw string held the Stetson to him in the air stream, tight around his muscular neck, that said. the wind seemed to affect it less than it should as if something about the Kryptonian was a work. She concentrated her mind and vision together and saw his body emitted a tight energy field – like a velvet glove around his steel fist, undetectable to normal eyes requiring perception beyond the natural.

Together the two alien paladins tore towards the Nevada desert. They arrived to find Diana in the heat of battle.

-'*'-

Diana Princess of the Amazons cast her golden lariat around the gigantic attacking form. Her black Jacket exposing her silvered bracelets. It was big enough to dwarf the military hangers around about. Immediately it's alien origin was apparent to her through the magical weave of Gaia's unbreakable girdle, as the avatar of truth the golden fire tested links communicated the very soul of whatever living thing the lasso encircled.

Diana braced as the limb she had encircled turned as the creature – or was it an artefact, or some bizarre combination of both strained against her. She was unsure in that moment what the alien thing was - it seemed to have no single thought, but a legion of consciousness – a collective of minds unified in a single purpose.

The Pentagram turned, a five pointed star, that ended in dagger like limbs, each curved like taloned finger, directing beams of energy at the desert floor.

At the centre of the flying star was a single circular eye enclosed in jagged pentagon of flickering lids.

Wheeling it drags Diana down towards the dirt, yanking her to the ground with a sudden turn of speed.

The Amazon hits the dust, bouncing and spinning – scraping her tight black leggings, until she finds her feet. Yanking her lasso again she digs her heels into the ground, joining herself to the clay from which she was formed, binding – bonding her will to the Earth herself.

The star thing pulls against her, driving itself into the ground, the white beams of energy tear the dirt and stones from the surface, smashing the reinforced concrete beneath, opening the secret vault of Area 51.

-'*'-

Lex Luthor shouts streams of profanities, turning the air blue with curses, as the feed from Groom Lake stuttered and flickered, the image of the alien attacker sent him apoplectic. His main systems within the bunker were down killed by a pre-emptive electromagnetic pulse.

"Get me the President." He raged at his Secretary. "Now Miss Teschmaker."

Lex turned to another screen, the alien attacked was tearing into the base, these images were streaming live over the internet, some UFO followers had camped out with a half decent camera with a telephoto lens, and were broadcasting the conflict live.

Luthor could see the beast excavating the vault he had so carefully created, the sight of what could only be metahumans engaging the beast did not improve his mood.

"It's not your place dammit." He spat.

A light blinked on his desk, a number confirmed a direct connection. "Mr President." Lex began. "I regret to inform you we have a situation at Area 51."

The smooth deep voice asked. "What are our options?"

"The aggressor's vessel released a massive electro magnet pulse as it's first attacked, control and command systems are fried. Internal containment protocols are off-line. The only option I can possible recommend is nuclear decontamination of the area – using the remote fire modified weapon."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. The President said. "I'll have to consult the joint chiefs – are you certain there is no other way?"

"I am Sir."

"Then God help us all Mr Luthor."

-'*'-

Clark skidded to a halt on the runway, his dark ox-blood boots scraping leather on the asphalt. His pale duster blew in the wind, and he slipped his wide brimmed hat onto his head. Around his mouth he had tied a bright red neckerchief in the style of the old west. Only his startling blue eyes glinted between this and the pale Stetson.

"What's going down?" He asked Bruce.

The Dark Knight was running ops, he read a feed coming through an embedded touch screen in his left arm. "Diana is trying to subdue – whatever that is – trying to get a measure of what it can do."

"Jo has just told me she is going to try and communicate with it – at least get an idea of why it's here."

"There are people dead or close to death all over the base – bladed weapon attacks it appears."

"I know." Bruce replied. Saying. "Ollie what's your status?" He asked across the League's unparalleled communication net.

"I'm closing in on your position." The Green Arrow replied.

Clark scanned the horizon, he eyes focusing on the stream of information, switching through the various frequencies, seeing light, radio, and other forms of radiation.

"I have them in sight." Ollie called back.

"Then we were right?" Bruce asked the Green Arrow.

"Yes. It's the Hashishin – the shadow assassins."

Clark now understood the code Zatanna had found in Vegas, it was so obvious. "#i$ -$H1N, Hash-is-shin. He searched the desert, and momentarily he located the Green Arrow, his camouflage armour possessing light bending technology courtesy of Queen Industries, wrapping him in the dried green of the scrub lands. He seemed to be tracking something – hunting his quarry, silently Queen closed in on the shadows beneath the stark buildings, square military concrete and steel constructs, with sounds only discernible to Clark's super hearing he drew back the bow string, and let fly an arrow, stealthily it cut the air, before exploding yellow fluorescent dye into the air a fine mist of droplets that bound to the shadows revealing within them the previously invisible human shapes of Hashishin. Dinah Lance slipped out of the shadows, releasing her Canary Cry – but this was no stage act, the sonic scream far above the range of human hearing eliminated the Hashishin now marked out by Zatanna's paint.

Ollie talked back. "Tell Zatanna that paint of hers sticks to these things."

"I hear you Archie – you boys asked for something that would stick to something supernatural – you got something that does exactly what it says on the tin." Zatanna replied over the wire.

Clark saw the spectral assassins panic as they realised their unnatural advantage was lost.

The men, for they were human beneath their shifting black camouflaging mist, now charged across the base towards the Black Canary.

The Green Arrow stood tall releasing more arrows that spread a wide net of yellow fluorescent paint across the dry air field.

Dinah didn't need direction, and as Bruce's voice spoke across the com, she was already engaging the shades. They moved quickly, but their elastic dance wasn't quick enough, and she contacted them at the speed of sound long before they could reach her, sending the now florescent speckled shadow warriors spinning in the dirt.

The Cowboy saw that the Hashishin threat was contained, and people were no longer dying at these spectral assassin's hands. He drew himself into flight, aiming at the pentacle alien that was wrestling Diana's lasso, while digging into the underground facility of Area 51.

Remembering his abilities Clark scanned the creature, and doing so to his surprise he located Jo J'Onzz. The Martian Manhunter had done more than tried to communicate with the star shaped entity, she had entered into the alien in an attempt to neutralise it.

Clark took a brief moment to study her face, she appeared lost in thought, serious and consumed with intense emotion. He became certain something strange was happening to her within the monster, she was like Jonah he thought, trapped in the belly of the whale.

Perhaps it was this concern for his friend that meant for a moment he was distracted. Suddenly his attack on the alien pentacle thing was interrupted as one of the free limbs slapped him down with sound of thunder, smashing him like a bullet into the chamber below.

-'*'-

Diana saw Clark disappear under ground, punched down by the alien attacker, even before he had made an impact on the thing, she felt very alone. Suddenly the entity seemed to find new reserves of strength, snapping her clear from ground. Diana was wrenched from the mystic bond that held her to the Earth, but doing so cracked the ground, ripping open a jagged chasm between her and the pentacle shaped invader, sending dust and rocks flying. Diana herself whipped outwards and upwards into the blue, holding onto her golden rope as it stretched as ever unbreakable.

The Amazon flashed skywards, letting the element of air embrace her she bound herself to the winds, and pulled again jerking the five limbed living collective artefact from the hole it had gouged in the desert.

Then unexpected help arrived.

-'*'-

Clark smashed through the concrete and steel hitting a wall of energy that shook him to his core. He felt like he was been shaken apart from the inside out. The pain was excruciating, and without thinking – instinctively he roared with anger, and from his eyes burst forth red hot burning light that carved a fiery line through the metal and concrete structure of the bunker, frying complicated electrical systems, before piercing the earth. Like lightening the beams from his eyes dissected the desert floor, slashing through one of the entities arms, the appendage fell, jerking and twisting to ground.

Clark felt the K radiations flooding his being, pouring from the ruptured bunkers principle vault. He felt emptied out, tired and knew in that moment, pain, but also certainty, sure that the five limbed creature intended to reach whatever lay in that secure room, and something inside him was certain that it was not the substance K that the Star thing sought, but rather the object the substance K surrounded.

Clark's hand gripped the jagged concrete, crumbling the hard grey composite under his fingers as he pulled himself upright, his muscles screaming – his bones aching, he felt like he had run a marathon in a blender, staggering he almost fell.

Then hands appeared as if by magic around him.

"Steady on." His saviour said in confident voice – Clark recognised the distinctive accent of Central City. "I'd thought you'd be a little more sure on your feet since you just broke my cell like a one man wrecking ball."

Clark straightened his hat, dusty, the brim torn, his long coat was in tatters, his red shirt torn open, one leg of jeans flapped loosely. "Yeah I'm a little punch drunk I'm sorry to say – I'm kind of allergic to meteor rocks – substance K."

"Then your in a bad place Cowboy, this bunker is Substance K central, but don't worry, since you crashed the joint you disabled their constantly variable plastic frequency field."

"I'm not sure what that is." Clark admitted. The other man was a blond haired tall well built man, he was wearing a red jump suit.

"It's whatever didn't tear you limb from limb just before." The man in red explained.

"Ah." Clark said. "That is perhaps what I felt pulling at me."

"Well it kept me in one place for sure – I couldn't adjust my bodies vibrational rhythm to match the field, since it was in constant flux."

"Wait, you can vibrate your molecular structure." Clark asked.

"Your not just an nearly indestructible rodeo rider are you? I'm Barry Allen by the way."

"Kal-El." Clark replied, it seemed the most appropriate answer.

"At least you're not the man with no name." Barry replied, as in a flash he charged outside, climbing a vertical wall simpley by applying unparalleled speed, dragging the boy from Kansas with him.

"Thanks." Clark said, feeling the kiss of the sun of his skin, the fresh air cleared his head of the lingering sensation of substance K. Above them the pentagram entity was already regrowing the limb Kent's super heated vision had sliced clear.

-'*'-

Diana saw the red fire burst from the bunker, she saw illuminated by the light the face of her new found friend Kal-El, his agony was self apparent, unleashing yet another power in this moment of crisis. Her Lasso pulled clear, it had to be that limb he had cleaved from the creature. Still she thought with admiration, first blood to Kal-El. Now she must return to fight the alien thing once more, but Diana didn't feel so alone any more.

"Hera help me" she said.

"I don't know about Hera." A voice said to her as he streaked past. "But would you accept a helping hand from the Green Lantern Corpsman Sector 2814." Diana watched the emerald lightening streak towards the interloper.

"Who are you?" Diana fell in beside flying man – his form suspended in a greenish hue, his black and green Corps uniform unmistakable as the galactic Police Force of the ancient Guardians, his mop of dark hair fluttered in the wind.

"The Lanterns don't usually interfere with the course of non space faring worlds.

"I'm Hal Jordan and I was born on this blue-green oasis, I'm not going to stand aside and see Starro

tear this world apart."

-'*'-

Barry Allen looked up as the giant translucent green hand wrestle with the five limbed thing.

"How long have I been underground?" He gasped. "Because I'm seeing a giant starfish and a very big hand."

Clark made a fist with his hand. "Directed energy given tangible three dimensional form is the principle weapon of the Green Lanterns Corps." He said, repeating knowledge he had received as baby between worlds.

"Whatever you say Cowboy - What now?" Barry then asked.

Clark looked up at the emerald warrior, the fact Diana seemed to work with him casting her lasso again around the creature reassured him. Sifting his memories he recalled lessons of history during his journey as a babe to Earth, he remembered the ancient race called the Oa, known as the Guardians of the Universe, they had for millennia policed space, culminating in the Lantern Corps.

He turned to Barry Allen. "I'm going to hit it, hard."

"And me – what can I do?"

Clark scanned the base, it was a bloody scene, shadows flickered back and forth as the Hashishins battled Bruce, Ollie, and Dinah.

"It's bad out there - the military had been unable to launch any counter-attack, since their people had been killed before they could act." he told Barry swiftly of the Hashishim. "I don't know how they are connected to the alien, but they are next to invisible, so watch the shadows, because they are fast."

"Not as fast as me." Barry replied disappearing.

Kent leapt at the creature the Green Lantern had called Starro.

-'*'-

Bruce adjusted his digital imaging sensors searching the shadows, around him lay the bodies of fallen airmen and base personal. The Dark Knight frowned beneath his mask as the image enhancement program worked it's magic, Bruce released a hail of pellets in the direction of emerging forms. Zatanna's magic brew mixed with his own patent gas pellets splashed the shadow devils revealing them, the Hashishin trio stumbled through the Wayne Chemicals non lethal nerve gas, to be dispatched by Bruce's martial skills.

"Bruce?" Queen's voice came through Wayne's earpiece.

"What's the chatter from the outside?" Ollie asked him.

"It's quiet – too quiet." Bruce replied.

"That means something bad is coming." Oliver stated. His voice was interrupted by the sound of squeals, and thumps. Queen continued. "I can't see Lex Luthor allowing anyone or anything to take his Area 51 vault from him."

-'*'-

The severed arm of the alien Starro lay on Nevada dirt, it's pale off white skin glistened as it twitched, slowly it seemed to deflate, breaking apart as it did so, becoming a grey sludge of tiny five fingered larvae like star shaped facsimiles of much larger whole, they swept in the dust disappearing like water soaking into the dry desert floor.

-'*'-

Zatanna took a swig from her hip flask and pulled a face like a little girl taking nasty medicine. The teleportation spell she had cast had been a difficult one, finding a safe place to materialise hundreds of feet underground had pushed her magic skill to the limit requiring both foresight and precision – a grasp of three dimensional space, coupled with significant power.

But she could not afford to falter, the Magician paused in the darkness, the electrical systems of the vault over loaded by the initial attack of the strange alien pentacle. Occasionally the air would flash blue white as an electrical short arced energy across the corridor.

"Etanimulli" Zatanna cast a beam of clear clean light that not only illuminated the area in front of her, but blew away the concrete dust from the scene, although powder debris continued to fall like rain onto her pristine black hat and costume.

"Nepo" She commanded as she drew her hands across the doors to the principle vault in the DOMA bunker here at the underground base. Bruce was certain this was the prize the strange force intended to seize, drilling it's way from above, and sure enough the vast chamber shook as the alien drove towards the deep protected vault. The pentacle monster's limbs smashing through the upper levels attempting to reach this deep storage facility.

However inside the cavernous chamber there was another source of illumination, the pale green glow of substance K.

The meteor rocks were strategically placed in a circle surrounding a tear dropped mercurial man sized object.

Zatanna's beam of light washed across it, and high magic touched high science, the spell danced across the silvery artefact, and a silent whisper crossed time and space and kissed Zatanna's soul. A thousand million voices cried out in anguish; a man and woman, a husband and a wife, a father and a mother's love and single minded determination rose above them, cheating death and delivering a single life to a distant alien world.

Over wrought by emotion Zatanna's inner calm was overwhelmed, her magical energy surging back and forward - cascading through her simple spell of illumination, suddenly light filled the cavern, a brilliance so clear and bright that there was nothing visible neither Magician nor Substance K, neither metal or concrete, but in midst of it all hovered the silver blue sphere pulsating and drinking in the ethereal radiance.

-'*'-

In the hills above the dry salt pan that was Groom Lake a bearded man inspected the scene of chaos below, his state of the art field glasses magnifying the pitch battle between the Amazon, the Green Lantern and the star shaped alien power Starro. He frowned angrily as the flying figure now dressed in little more than rags punched the eye of the alien marauder driving him upwards, into the green beam of the Lanterns Power Ring, its energies binding the creature as sure as the unbreakable gold lasso of the gods wielded by Diana.

His phone buzzed, he clicked the blue-tooth earpiece. "Yes."

"Lord Savage, our agent in Washington has confirmed the President has met with the Joint Chiefs, and he has green lit a nuclear strike. The bird is in the air."

"Inform our key personal to begin an immediate withdrawal, direct all expendable actives to harry and distract these metahuman vigilantes."

"Do you wish a evac for yourself sir."  
"I survived the Tsar Bomb, I think I can sit this one out." He replied, his voice dismissive. Then he smiled broadly. "The United States will do my work for me." He laughed. Vandal Savage loved it when a plan came together, it was one joy in life, and after over forty thousand years of existence he had learned to savour the experience.

-'*'-

Clark's fists flew like rocket powered engines, smashing at the armoured creature with atomic ferocity.

As hard as he and Diana fought, alongside their new ally, the Green Lantern, the creature seemed able to shrug off their attack, each time they interrupted its assault Starro regrouped and attacked again. The entity was able to withstand massive damage, Starro was able to repair, and already the limb he had severed was regrowing. Starro refused to yield.

He searched the internals of the pentacle monster, desperately trying to reach Jo J 'Onzz but the creature-machine was plastic, absorbing his blows. A few hundredths of a second later, in midst of his frustration he felt the touch of the Martian Manhunter's telepathy. Jo whispered to him, yes there was confusion and pain, grief and terror, from his colleague, but she managed to reveal to him telepathically the entity's nature.

Coupled with his vision powers he could see now how Starro was a unconnected mass of individual minds which Jo J'Onzz could not honestly identify as natural or artificial, but something in between, the living vessel was neither machine nor animal.

As the seconds past Clark was all the more determined to reach her, but hesitant to use his heat vision, especially with Jo's inherent weakness.

Clark dived between the flashing limbs and came to Diana's side. "I can't get to her – she is trapped mentally some how – unable to phase out of the entity."

"Hera. I'm sure not for the want of trying." She told him. Diana wrestled Starro back from the hole, only for the alien to drag itself back into the bunker. It was a war of attrition and the alien was not weakening.

Diana turned to him desperate. "Kal-El Can you blast it again – with that heat vision you used to cut Starro before?" She asked.

"I'm not yet in full control of my abilities." Clark replied honestly.

Her eyes taking in his dishevelled state, she nodded, saying. "And given Jo's weakness."

"Exactly." Clark said, I might burn her too, if not for that I would have tried to cook this galactic size calamari."

Diana pulled Starro back once more, as the Lanterns green rays created a glowing mesh between the alien and it's prize, this held back the monster momentarily.

Diana sighed, able to relax briefly from her labours. Clark looked at her, Diana's black leather jacket was stained with dirt, and torn. Her leggings holed. Diana was dirtied, but not defeated, and Clark admired her for it, even like this she looked beautiful, her hands wrapped around her taught lasso pulling the alien away from the underground complex.

He felt like a hobo, she was still clearly a Princess.

Hal Jordon shouted to them. "If we can damage Starro enough it will confuse his cooperative intelligence – concentrate it's efforts of self repair, once that happens we should be able to immobilise it."

Mean while Starro had recovered breaking through the emerald cage.

"How?" Diana asked, as Jordan continued to try an entrap the creature in his Power Ring's grip.

"According the Guardians Intelligence on this entity if we deprive it of air, of light, and moisture, the creature will retreat into form of hibernation – it will be contained."

" Remember Lantern, the Martian Manhunter tried to communicate with it, to stop it, and she's still inside – we must get her out."

Hal frowned, behind the black domino mask his eyes showed regret. "Look I was military for a long time here on Earth, and I can tell right now, if we don't shut this down, the Joint Chiefs will – and they won't do it quietly." Hal Jordon stated. He added. "Perhaps if we immobilise Starro your friend will be able to free herself."

"Perhaps." Diana conceded.

Clark looked at Starro, as it directed it's attentions back on the hole it was creating into the deeper levels of the reinforced bunker.

"I'm going to try something." He told them. Looking up at Diana and Hal Jordan he said."Get ready to let go of the thing." Then he turned and accelerated away.

-'*'-

Diana frowned Kal-El was already gone, he was quick, very quick, she was just getting used to the idea he could fly – and now this, it stunned her, everything was happening so quickly – but she had to stay focused, Jordan was right, they had to end this soon, before things escalated further.

Diana could hear Kal-El picking up speed, first away from them, and heart beat later coming back, now she grasped his idea, the sonic boom from across the desert confirmed it, tearing towards Starro the man from Krypton via Kansas, reappeared his loose clothes burning with heat of air friction, a brief flicker in her eyes, before bullet like he slams into the alien, penetrating into it's core, but at the same time his superhuman ability to manipulate mass – the centre of his powers, came into play as he drove the wounded Starro straight into the rocky hillside behind the base.

-'*'-

Across the desert a B52 strattofortress released an advanced cruise missile, it's nuclear warhead primed and ready, the black guided flying bomb tore towards the base it's target approved.

-'*'-

Clark felt himself enter the body of the creature, Jo's mind met his, she was confident that even this amount of damage would not do any lasting harm to the creature.

"Kal-El!" Jo called out to him.

Moving through the gelatinous interior Clark found her, she was enveloped in a myriad of tiny grey facsimiles of the pentacle alien. Taking hold of Jo, he began to drag them both out of the living machine, finally feeling free to use his heat vision once more, he cut his way out, breaking through the rubble of the collapsed rock face into which he had driven Starro.

Clark rose into the air, Jo remained limp occasionally jerking and shaking in his arms. The tiny star shaped things were bound to her like barnacles on a rock. As he carried her one of the creatures slid onto his hand another attached to his arm. He fired heat vision at the first, and fell away, but he did not trust himself yet, and Jo had her weakness.

As he flew he had another idea, and he blew ice cold super compressed air onto his arm, the frozen grey star ceased its tiny movements and he was able to flick it from his skin. Holding Jo at arms length he froze the grey pulsating mass solid and inert, with a blast of super cooled breath. Then almost immediately the Martian Manhunter emerged from icy shell, passing through it as insubstantial ghost might, Jo had command of her abilities once more. She took flight and told him she was all right telepathically.

As the ice shell fell to the ground, Clark unleashed another burst of heat vision to vaporise the frozen alien entities.

Jo opened a channel to the League to inform them of their progress, and her own status.

Above Clark could see Hal Jordon expending the incredible green energy emitted from his Power Ring. The Green Lantern was enclosing the alien within the rock face.

"That should contain him for now. "Jordan told them.

"Are you all right?" Diana asked Jo.

She nodded quite emphatic. "Diana, the entity can meld with minds, it even held me – we must remain vigilant, even trapped it might be a threat."

Clark hovered. His boots still smouldering, his jeans reduced to charred shorts, Diana smiled at him.

"You did well Kal-El, brutal but effective."

Clark nodded, aware of his near nakedness, but he had no time for modesty today. Turning back to the base he gestured saying. "We should see how our friends are doing against the Hashishin.

"I will descend and investigate the bunker – Zatanna is there, but Bruce cannot raise her on the com channel." Jo told them, and without another word she slipped through the broken desert floor, as if it were water.

Clark and Diana joined Hal Jordon beside the cavity in the desert floor. Starro had come close to opening the deepest level of Area 51.

Barry Allen sped up to them so quickly that only he and Diana were fully prepared for his sudden arrival, Jordan's power ring flickered reacting more quickly than it's biological compatriot.

"I've been taking out these shadow assassins, never seen anything quite like them." Barry spoke quickly. "There are couple of guys in fancy body armour, and a blonde in combat gear, who looks a lot like Dinah Lance the singer, any way they were doing a pretty good job before I arrived – albeit slowly. They're headed this way now – I'm assuming they're friends of yours Diana?"

"Barry Allen?" She said with unashamed joy.

"You look surprised to see me." The man from Central City said with a smile, apparently remembering to speak at a more human pace.

Diana hugged him . "I thought you were dead... after you contacted me asking for help, then nothing."

Barry shrugged. "My metagene kicked in – no substance K involved, maybe a bit of lightening and an odd bath.., any way that kind of spooked my boss."

"You know each other?" Clark asked.

"Yeah Barry worked at DOMA Central City Division, he was their Forensic Science genius." Diana answered.

Allen shrugged, ruffling his hair. "Aww shucks – nice of you to say so." He imitated a western drawl. "But not _that_ essential, because DOMA shipped me out here, and then stopped me leaving. Our _beloved_ Director was trying to work out where my abilities were coming from.

"Sorry but by the way - who are these grey misty killers?" He asked, his warm smile was replaced with an angry frown. "It's terrible what they have done here."

Clark agreed the human carnage was terrible, bodies lay around dispatched with cruel and quiet efficiency in the first minutes of the attack.

Diana answered. "The Hashishin are the foot soldiers of the Illuminaté – they are clothed in mist and shadow."

Clark folded his arms across his bare chest. "Then that is who summoned this alien – the Illuminaté."

Hal Jordon shook his head. "Starro is not a creature that would respond to even the richest and most powerful Earth has to offer, we're a primitive world by galactic standards – it must have wanted whatever is stored in that facility – very badly."

"Then why did these Hashishin attack at the same time." Clark asked.

"That is a good question." Bruce said, arriving as Barry had indicated, his Black Armour now covered in a brown dusty sheen.

Ollie joined them too. His suit had returned to the default Lincoln green, Dinah Lance came with them, she passed Clark his battered hat. "Found this on the ground, thought you might want it."

"Er thanks Dinah."

Diana could not help but smile as she took the hat from him and placed it on his head. "So totally the naked Cowboy now, all you need is a guitar."

Even Bruce almost cracked a smile, burying the violent alien under tons of fused rock had lifted the mood somewhat. Clark shrugged, and put the hat on, what else could he do; even in the midst of all this death and destruction – more to the point because of it, they needed gallows humour.

-'*'-

The Martian Manhunter slipped into bunker passing through the solid concrete walls, searching for Zatanna, her eyes adjusting to the glaring brilliance within it, and seeing the Magician Jo sensed from her mind that Zatanna was caught in the cascading spell, Jo took hold of her colleague pulling her back. "Zatanna!" She tried to break the young woman's trance, at the same time gently touching her thoughts. The Magician gasped and her preternatural light went out.

-'*'-

"Mr Luthor latest intelligence from the scene indicates the Metahuman vigilantes are attempting to subdue the large alien." The President's voice indicated both relief and surprise.

Luthor sighed and closed his eyes, pausing before speaking into the receiver. "Sir I have successfully rebooted my backup systems – and I have a live feed from the incident.

"I can't confirm what the Metahuman agenda is, or that of the large alien – but I can tell you the Smallville artefact is now active."

"What?"

"I'm looking at it now sir – and I can tell you it looks exactly as it did twenty-five years ago."

"What are you telling me?"

"Sir you can't risk aborting the strike, the Metahumans may be in league with the one - or even both of these extra terrestrials!" Luthor insisted. He paused and said more quietly. "Although it seems to me more likely they are competing with the large alien to get access to our deep facility – to be blunt we don't know what the Smallville artefact will do now it is active."

Luthor heard nothing but silence from his Commander in Chief.

"Mr President we have no idea of the durability of the entity currently attacking our base – the only and safest option is to allow the K bomb to detonate.

"We know K radiation has an incredibly short half life, conventional fall out will be low given the tactical size of the nuke, and the K infused material will become inert in matter of hours, but the yield of the standard fission bomb will be multiplied many times – greater than that of 9 Megagon W53 – but more contained, more concentrated. I'm certain the area will be effectively cleansed."

It was the President's turn to sigh heavily. A beads of sweat dappled Luthor's hairless brow. He looked at the clock, in scarce seconds the point of no return would be passed, and the Cruise Missile would make it's target.

"It appears I have devils alternative – no choice at all." The President conceded, seconds ticked by.

-'*'-

Jo and Zatanna watched as the mercurial tear drop shimmered and morphed changing shape into a humanoid form. The same robot Lex Luthor had seen twenty five years ago on the outskirts of Smallville, Kansas.

The robot turned to them, mimicking curiosity or so it appeared. Jo sensed no natural intelligence, but in her field of vision she detected a stream of energy from the Kryptonian device.

Then it spoke to her in language long dead, her own. "Manhunter protect the human."

As Jo placed herself between it and Zatanna, from the robot's fingers energy bursts smashed into the concrete floor. The Kryptonian machine turned wheeling around, carving a circle into the bunker floor, as did so the substance K fell into deepening trench, to be quickly buried. Jo turned her back to the onslaught protecting Zatanna who was quickly regaining her composure, finding her strength once more.

"What is happening?"

"Kal-El's ship is active."

-'*'-

Clark heard the approaching jet engine, it was one of many closing in on the devastated air force base, but there something about it's tone that concerned him. Looking skyward he found the missile moments away from its target.

Suddenly there was flash of light and an explosion of sound as a mercurial figure rocketed skywards. Clark felt his heart skip a beat, as Kal-El recognised the craft that had once carried him within it's artificial womb across space from Krypton to Earth.

-'*'-

The Kryptonian device had one overriding purpose, Lara his mother had programmed the artificial intelligence with a simple directive – protect her son at all costs.

The modified nuclear weapon hurtled to the base, within the AGM-129 ACM Luthor had packed substance K, around what was little more than suitcase bomb, the initial fission explosion would act as detonator for the alien meteor rock, a sudden cataclysmic explosion.

The cruise missiles on board telemetry brought it to the programmed target.

The mercurial humanoid shape of the Kryptonian technological artefact grasped the human weapon, it's fluid form changing shape as it flowed like water around the missile enclosing it. Probing it's circuitry the Kryptonian machine came up against the disabling effects of Substance K. There were no seconds left, and the artificial intelligence had only one option.

The missile exploded.

On the ground there was only silence, in the sky the mercurial form of the Kryptonian artefact expanded into a sphere, shimmering in the sun, the silvery form oscillated spikes rising from its surface randomly before contracting and falling to back to Groom Lake.

-'*'-

Clark and Diana, Jo and Barry arrived within hundredths a second of the Kryptonian vessels crash landing, it had punched a crater in the salt of the dry lake bed.

Hal Jordan followed carrying Bruce and Ollie, Dinah and Zatanna, within his emblem green light energy.

The spiky sphere was blackened, many of it's strange crystalline prongs broken, as rested in the dirt, the broken craft cracked open like an egg.

"Careful Kal-El." Diana grabbed his arm, but Clark approached the last Kyrptonian construct reverently.

From the broken interior a projection crackled into sight, the holograms spat and fizzled.

"Kal-El. This is the voice of your father Jor-El." The images spoke Kryptonian. "And your Mother Lara."

Clark following his exposure to Diana's Purple Ray remembered the language of kinsmen. While Hal Jordan's Power Ring performed the same function for the Lantern Corpsman, who said to Diana. "It's all right – those are Clark's birth parents."

Zatanna whispered "Etalsnart." Magically the alien voices were rendered into English over the Leagues communication earpieces.

"This vehicle has suffered catastrophic damage." Jor-El told his son.

"We had hoped to equip you with everything you might need." Lara told him. "This ship was to provide for and protect you in all foreseeable circumstances."

"But Kal-El it appears two decades and more have past since this ship reached Earth, and for unknown reasons it's functions have been impaired by Kryptonite for all that time." Jor-El added.

Lara said. "Only recently did the ship reconnect with you – triggering it's systems, but continued exposure to intense Kryptonite radiation caused a feedback loop."

Jo turned to Diana saying. "That surely explains Clark's coma."

Jor-El contined to explain saying. "An intense burst of energy recharged the ships systems permitting it to escape and intercept the Kryptonite weapon aimed at you."

Zatara spoke across the com line. "That would be down to me it appears."

Jo agreed. "It would seem your magical light in the bunker was the source."

Jor-El's image bowed it's head. "Kal-El I am deeply sorry we failed to anticipate all possible threats to your survival. I am but a ghost of myself, a recording programmed to be a representative of the person I was – but for what it is worth I am sorry my son, sorry you had grow up alone and without us, especially in a place so dangerous that they have used Kryptonite against you."

"I am not alone, not then, and not now." Clark said firmly. "I have my Mom and my Pa and I have my friends." He said looking towards Diana, and the other League members.

Lara spoke. "But we included a secondary system..." The machine crackled for a moment it seemed the hologram of his parents were gone, but they came back briefly losing colour and shape, but the voices manage to say at last together. "Good bye."

Then the craft which had been his interstellar crib, fell back into itself, crumbling to dust, leaving behind a single metallic object. Clark bent down and from the silver powder lifted up the crest of his family, the house of El, it was a shield, a badge sized emblem, in red and yellow it bore the same Stylised S on both sides, but with the colours reversed. Red on yellow, and yellow on red.

"What is it?" Barry asked.

Clark shook his head and showed it to his friends. Ollie and Bruce came running over. The S badge rested in Clark's palm, then as glinted in the sunlight, it seemed to open like a butterfly, flickering for a second, and split, so the two S images became separated they took flight, Red on yellow jumping onto Clark's chest settling between the v of his pectorals and cleft of his clavicles. From here the shield expanded, inflating wrapping around his chest. Blue shining material unfolded around him, displacing the scorched rags he wore; as suddenly in the blink of an eye Kal-El was dressed in colours of his family. He wore their crest, and their flag unfurled behind him a cape in the style of Old Krypton. Above them the first part of the shield hurtled skyward disappearing into the blue.

Barry shook his head. "I thought this guy with his green glowing thingamajigs fighting a giant starfish was incredible enough, now this."

Diana looked at Clark up and down. "It kind of suits you."

"I think it's rather bright." Bruce told them, to which Ollie laughed.

He said. "I'm sure that look was de rigueur on Krypton, but I'm not sure the underwear on the outside of the pants will catch on here."

Jo reached out and touched the fabric. "Kryptonian technology – standard issue day wear." She told them. "This was constructed to survive on the surface of Krypton, and was tough by their standards, in human terms this material is indestructible."

"I would like to test that." Bruce said.

"You mean you'd like to patent it." Ollie chuckled.

"You might do that if you had a thousand years in which to study it." Jo replied. Her face told Clark she spoke in all seriousness.

"I wonder what the other thingamajig is doing." Barry asked looking skyward.

"My ring cannot detect it, nor track it." Hal said surprised. The Lantern was evidently used to Guardian Technology being practically omniscient.

-'*'-

Diana looked skyward too, her hunters eye spied the path the S-Shield had taken, but something deep within her spoke to her – this was no evil thing from Krypton, like Kal-El she felt certain it would be a force for good. She looked at Kal-El of Krypton – Clark Kent of Kansas. He stood in the brilliant colours, a modern demigod shining bright on the pale salty ground. She felt a new age was dawning.

"At least this suit will be able to withstand your speeds and abilities." She told him, while looking at herself. "I think I should perhaps look into something like that for myself." She added. "I look a mess."

"Nah, you look great to me." He replied without missing a beat. "Maybe Bruce is right though, these clothes are perhaps a bit colourful."

Diana looked out across at the smouldering remains of Area 51. "Given the tourist traffic on the extraterrestrial Highway, I doubt the Justice League can remain a shadow organisation any longer, like it or not." She spoke to her colleagues too. "It looks like we've all gone public, we know the government for sure knows about us now – seeing we just saved them from an alien and needlessly detonating a nuclear weapon over home soil, and the rest of world – well you can bet Starro versus the League is all over You tube as I speak."

Diana gestured to Kal-El. "You can bet all our lives are about to get a whole lot more colourful from now on."


	8. Chapter 8

James Olsen ran through the Newsroom of the Daily Planet.

"Mr White." He shouted. Perry flung the door of his office open.

"Ceasers Ghost!" He coughed. "What's got you so worked up Jimmy?"

"This." Olsen replied, he clicked the remote in his hands, one of large plasma screens on the media wall switched over from CNN to a video feed from the Web. The Planet's Head of IT directed his Editor to screen.

Perry's heavy eye brows knotted together, as he read the UFO Conspiracy title of the website, but his eyes registered the video stream, his features shifted from consternation to stunned disbelief.

"I know Boss, it's seriously out of this world."

Oslen took over a second screen. "That's the cached video I pulled from the web about five minutes ago." Jimmy told his Editor in Chief. "This is what's happening now."

-'*'-

Diana drove into the rock face above the entrapped Starro, the gauntlets forged from the Aegis Shield of Zeus protecting her, as she smashed into the rock tons of rubble cascaded down, adding to the considerable weight of debris that the Green Lantern Corpsman had earlier pounded into place around the Alien entity.

Kal-El rose up above them all. He felt the heat of the desert sun on his now colourful costume, and inspired and powered by that life giving light he concentrated his attention on the makeshift tomb of the alien entity, unleashing at torrent of red heat from his eyes. Together with the Green Lanterns tendrils of material energy, together they turned the compacted rock into a seething, heaving mass of molten lava, which engulfed the alien, entombing it inside the hill.

-'*'-

"And now introducing WGBS-NEWS newest reporter, intrepid Journalist and award wining War Correspondent Lois Lane. Good evening Lois, I believe you have a very eminent guest with you this evening. One who can perhaps shed light onto what the Government is calling an Extra Terrestrial Incident, but everyone else is calling the story of the Century."

"I sure do Roy. I'd like to welcome Herbert S. Fine to our studio here at Galaxy Broadcasting Metropolis. Mr Fine is remarkably ninety six years young, and as most of you I'm sure know is renowned around the world as writer who brought science to the masses, and as a Eisner award winning novelist.

"Mr Fine, among your most influential works is the 'Genesis of Super-Man'." Lois held up a copy of the work. "Many people consider it almost prescient following the anomalous abilities reported in recent years.

"For those who haven't read your book, is it fair to say you explore the possible ways in which humanity _might_ evolve in the future?"

"It's more complex than that Lois, I speculate that given enough time, as my old friend Arthur C Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, that life's relationship with technology will become so blurred that the two will be indistinguishable, the definition of what is natural – biological and what is artificial – mechanical, meaningless. That human evolution as random process will be supplanted by a controlled and ordered medical intervention. A human being millions of years more evolved than we are today might outwardly look no different from the average man in the street, but possess powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, able to change the course of mighty rivers, and bend steel in his bare hands."

"Until yesterday I would have found that hard to believe – I'd be tempted to say _never in a million years_,.."

"I did say millions Lois."

"Yes Mr Fine you did, but you really leap to my next question there, I was about to say that the events at Groom Lake Air Force Base yesterday – happened in our own time, not some distant future, I mean to say Sir, you've lived to see this." Lois cued the video from Area 51. "Here we wonder at this flying woman." Hang on I have a still here of her. Lois brought up an enhanced capture of the black jacketed figure. "She has the vast star shaped creature lassoed with some incredible golden filament."

"Perhaps someone has successfully created carbon nano-tubes of sufficient length." Fine speculated.

Lane continued. "Then we witness a man suspended in the air in a green aura, which he can project from him into various shapes."

"Some kind of energy to matter conversion – incredible really." Fine added.

Lois said. "And of course _this image_ has become the most searched on the internet over the last 24 hours. "Lois dialled up the naked god-like torso and face of a flying man." Clicking forward this image appeared on the cover of a number of leading women's periodicals.

Fine coughed. "I can't comment on why that might be." He said with a wink. "I think you young lady are better placed than I, to explain this fellows popularity."

Lois smiled, flicking her hair. "The question is Mr Fine, could this Superman be the kind of being you anticipated in your final chapter of your book entitled 'Reign of the Super-Man'?"

"I anticipated a people eventually able to change the course of planets and bend stars to their will Miss Lane, how something like this could happen in my own lifetime? Well I admit that is a mystery – one I wish I knew the answer too, but as fast as the issues I raise 'Reign' it's simply this – is such super-human power a force for good or evil?"

"And isn't this the question of the moment – put another way; what is the agenda of this group? And I'm sure our viewers would like to here your opinion Mr Fine"

"Well given these super-beings managed to defeat the alien star creature attacking United States Air Force facility on US soil, I think we can assume benevolence."

-'*'-

Lex Luthor killed the WGBS-NEWS show from his screen, hurling his remote across his office. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions Mr Fine." Luthor growled. Slamming his hands together, the _former_ Director of Metahuman affairs continued to clear his desk.

The Daily Planet lay there, it's headline read. "Alien attack Area 51. ET exists!"

"Yes." He snapped answering his personal mobile. "How the hell did you get this number." He said a moment later – caller ID had come up 'unknown', the voice on the line said.

"My name is Vandal Savage, and I am about to make you an offer you cannot refuse."

-'*'-

"General Lane."

"Yes Mr President."

"Take a seat Sam."

Lane sat across the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office of the White House from his countries forty fourth President.

"After considering the seriousness of yesterdays events, I find the economic crisis is no longer the number one news story – ET is."

"I'm sorry if the Press is giving you a hard time sir."

"I wasn't meaning that personally - I know your daughter is a big girl now Sam, and this is the biggest story ever. One we've been sitting on since Truman instituted Majestic 12 back in 47.

"To put it bluntly they've a right to be pissed."

The President fingers drummed on the desk. Lane guessed he could do with a cigarette right about now. He continued.

"Thing is this, I have to agree with the joint Chiefs; the ongoing problem of Metahuman's and the indisputable connection to Extra Terrestrial activity on Earth, demands a Military response.

"Sam as of now I am putting the Department of Metahuman Affairs under your command, all men and material are on secondment to you and your staff at the Joint Task Force."

"Thank you Mr President."

"Sam."

"Yes sir."

"Whatever these people are – they prevented our most advanced nuclear weapon from detonating, and while I'm glad history won't remember me as the first President to launch a nuclear attack on US soil, that anyone is capable of neutralising our principal deterrent is very troubling to say the least.

"Lex Luthor might have been wrong about these presumably Red-Letter Metahuman's motives – wrong to advise a strike, and ultimately responsible for DOMA's failure to identify these incredibly powerful Metahumans living among us. Yet I find myself thankful to them. God knows how many more innocents would have died in Nevada had the weapon exploded."

Sam Lane frowned. The President held up his hand. "But General, I'm not ready yet to delegate our countries defence to a unelected, unsupervised group of unknowns."

"Don't worry Sir, I'll get to the bottom of this."

-'*'-

Vandal Savage clicked his bluetooth headset off, and turned his chair to face his visitor.

"It is done. Luthor took the bait. I guess loss of office and influence concentrated his mind."

Savage stood up, tall dark, bearded, he had remained at the peak of his powers for tens of thousands of years, yet the being across from him was by far an away his senior. If he had learned to be patient, this being was positively glacial.

"There is a possibility the materials recovered from Roswell might yet prove useful." The tall man had pale face, almost like bleached bone, over the millennia it's colour had waned from vibrant blue. He could pass for human, and today wore the dark crimson – almost black suit albeit awkwardly, as it was alien to him.

Savage considered this. "It will be difficult to retrieve."

"But not impossible."

"Not for the Illuminaté." Savage stated. "With Luthor's inside knowledge, getting to this wreckage should be much easier."

"Because it is so much less interesting than the Smallville vessel – even the humans understood this much, the Roswell craft was a simple mechanical probe rather than a living space ark."

"You still haven't told me why the Manhunters are so interested in these particular Extra Terrestrial artefacts."

"That information was not part of our deal."

"Which I kept – I neutralised the bases defences, prepared the ground for your chosen agent."

The Manhunter folded his arms, almost betraying a flicker of human like emotion. Savage smiled. "Our original deal has passed." He said. "Starro failed you. This is a new day, before I help you again - I wish to know why you want these things?"

Savage watched the stern faced artificial life form consider his words.

"Very well." The Manhunter said finally. "For the Roswell Wreckage, in addition to the information we posses regarding the meteorite responsible for your supernatural longevity – I will tell you this much now.

"Krypton was a super massive gravity dense planet orbiting a colossal red sun, the home to a race of super-beings, the only species able to withstand the intense radiations and gravity. Once a mighty race to whom there were no equal, in science or raw bodily power – yet they chose to live as your people do, powerless and mortal. The artefact we sought was the last of their unparalleled technology – the earlier probe is now all that remains."

"And what do you propose to do with this tech?"

The Manhunter replied without emotion. "To finally defeat our past masters – to crush the Guardians of the Universe and destroy the Green Lantern Corps, to return our race to our rightful place as judges of all – no man escapes the Manhunters!"


	9. Chapter 9

"Diana." Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons addressed her daughter and heir. "We are not amused.

"Suddenly your face is all over the Patriarch World's global system of interconnected computer networks, you are seen on their television receivers, replicated in their printed works.

"When you left Themyscira as our Emissary to the outside world, it was a role we the Amazon's of Themyscira wished to be enacted in secret - just as we have long lived in secret, here upon our secluded Islands. Secure because Mankind was ignorant of our Paradise. Child you acted rashly – I fear you value your new found friends more highly than your sister Amazons."

"Mother." Diana was indignant. "What would you have me do – let another stronger unknown Patriarchy replace our human one? Does not our own ancient mysteries speak if Starro the Conqueror – the living death from beyond the stars?"

"That I cannot deny." Her Mother said.

Diana turned from the dias. her mother's throne, and to the Amazon's Senate, the court of the Monarch.

"Queen and Council. Why send me to the World of Men, if not to make the World of Men a better and fairer place?"

The Queen said to her. "Diana, I forgave your rebellion when you pledged yourself to the rite of Tournament, for that was a solemn oath – and oath's should not be broken. I respected your promise, and accepted the will of the gods when you triumphed, wept when the gods released upon you the fullness of their blessings making you all the more powerful, their chosen, the Champion of Olympus. Arming you with their strength and their magic.

"So daughter, I simply ask you to respect the oath we swore together when you left the Paradise of Themyscira to go to the Patriarch's world; that you would not fall into the trap Aphrodite set for me at the behest of Ares, for Hera consumed by jealousy wished me to kill Heracles, but Ares planned a different outcome – one that ne'er destroyed the Amazons forever."

Diana had not forgotten. She said. "I can't help the timing of my birth, I can't help that I wasn't around to witness first hand how Ares incited Heracles and his warriors to do what they did.

"But please don't lecture on my heritage – I wear my bracelets as a constant reminder of how Heracles's Army raped, pillaged and enslaved my people. Sometimes Mother, despite your protests to the contrary I think you wish I had been alive to see that shameful day."

The Queen shook her head angry. "Diana when your league of friends included mere human men, when your strongest allies were the Martian, the Homo Magi Zatana and the troubadour Dinah Lance, I was untroubled, I knew these mortal men, the Knight and Archer, would not turn your head or win your heart – but this one." Hippolyta summoned magically from the circular fiery pit of Hestia an image of the half naked Kal-El flying to her aid as Diana fought Starro the Conqueror.

"This Adonis reminds me of Heracles, save for the fact his powers exceed even a demigod. I fear they equal even yours Champion of Olympus - in all but name a god on earth."

"Mother I stand before the hearth of Hestia, here in the heart of Themyscira. I was born as an Avatar of truth, the embodiment of divine feminine. Empowered by the sextet of goddesses and the Earth herself. How can you question my resolve, or my judgement? I know what lies in the hearts, in the very souls of my friends, even this alien Kal-El.

"Yes perhaps this man is my equal in strength and power, but you cannot see what I have seen with my golden lariat. Mother I have looked into his heart, into his very soul. His ambitions and desires are also equal to mine, to see truth and justice done."

The Queen rose to this challenge. "Daughter these fine words are the very foundations of what can only be a growing admiration for this male. I am three thousand years old, I have seen the way Eros creeps into the heart, and how even the immortal gods can be seduced."

The Oracle Menalippe, lowered the hood of her green cloak from around her bronze locks. "Majesty – that maybe, I cannot yet see the future of this strange visitor from another planet with powers beyond those of mortal men, but Diana's truth is undeniable.

"The Alien Starro meant to seize an artefact of great power belonging to Kal-El's race. Yet I see another hand at work, one older still. Starro is but the servant of a more dangerous power. One from the shadows of time, a Patriarchy of galactic proportions. Diana had no choice – she had to stand with her friends or see Patriarch's World fall.

"We might wish it otherwise, but Diana is now known to the world of men, a new age dawns – one where we can no longer dwell in the obscurity of forgotten myth."

The Queen sighed and rested her head in her hands. "Then Oracle what does the future hold for us?"

"We must step out from the mystic clouds of Themyscira and take our place among the nations of this Earth."

"This is dangerous – it is unthinkable." The words came from a fellow Councillor of the Royal Court. General Philipus was Amazons chief military commander.

The Oracle did not disagree. "Yes it is all those things, but Philipus there is little point in arguing for continued secrecy – unless you would have Diana, who the world of men is calling Wonder Woman, deny her true heritage, deny she is an Amazon, disavow us in silence by not denying her sisters live? Because General they will ask her, both the men and women of the outside world will want to know who she is and where she comes from, and why she came to them."

Philipus frowned. She had no answer. Diana could not lie. Finally she said. "If we are to announce ourselves to their world it must be as a power equal in standing to any great nation recognised by their laws – they must understand we can defend our realms with powers beyond the ken of their mechanical and physical sciences."

Diana looked to her Mother. "My Queen – Mother, there is an organisation called the United Nations that holds the authority to recognise a country..."

The Queen interrupted her daughter. "Child it maybe that circumstances force our hand, but after three thousand years as the leader of our people I will not be hurried into any decision; but you must not be caught in a lie, answer truthfully – be not ashamed of your land, your people and our greater calling – that of peace."

"Mother I am proud to be an Amazon. The world will know me as your daughter, and a sister of Themyscira, by Hera I will see peace by truth and justice bless the sons and daughters of the wider world."

-'*'-

The President pushed across the Resolute Desk an issue of Time which displayed the red and yellow S crest on the blue chest of the flying man from Area 51. Bringing Sam Lane's attention to the symbol. "Some reactionary voices are publicly calling for a crackdown on the existing Metahuman community, but General we've been tagging and licensing the Meteor rock freaks for a generation now, and I'm not sure how more legislation; and, or, more money and agents in the field, is going to make a difference now.

"Mr President." Lane began. "Of course we're reviewing the situation, but I think you're right, a knee jerk reaction at this time would be ill advised."

"Good – so what are your initial conclusions?"

"Frankly it's pretty clear that we can't force people to register themselves as gifted, and that our current testing and analysis can't always detect or even accurately measure those gifts – if they were effective then an organisation of beings like this self styled Justice League would not exist.

"And while others amongst my own Staff would come down hard on these Red's; the Red-Letter Metahumans - I'm not going to fall into that trap either – this is the Twenty First Century, not Dr Strange Love, and you didn't call on me to be some pastiche of military clichés seeing Red's under the bed at every turn, and frankly a re-run of Joe McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities would be counter-productive. People are already fed up with the counter terrorism measures that were introduced after 911.

"I'm sure Sir, that I don't need to tell you how the public has reacted to the Area 51 incident. The Press coverage, the popular cultural response has been to embrace the idea of these Super-beings as Hero's, and frankly I don't need a thousand dollar per hour shrink to tell me when you're faced with an unknown like that star shaped Alien thing attacking America, the idea that America has latter day gods on our side against that kind of nightmarish monster – has to connect. In short People want to believe in Angels."

"Fortunately they seem to be the good kind." Lane's Commander in Chief said.

"True, but we have to be prepared for the worse, but for now, well this is America Mr President, a nation built on the idea of individual freedom and responsibility – so the idea that persons – Reds – would selflessly step up to defend us, heck it's as American as Old Glory, and Mom and apple pie."

The President nodded. "You don't have to tell me that, the pollsters, and focus group managers, and my own instincts tell me as much.

"I mean look at these people." The forty fourth President said. "There is the one they are calling Wonder Woman, now she could be an angel – just look at her, equally she could come from the cover of Vogue, and this Superman, half naked, and then suddenly in all these primary colours, it is a marketing man's dream – the S crest, or whatever it is has gone viral, it's everywhere." He tapped the cover of Time.

"Then there is this 'Green' Angel, for example - I mean it might as well be magic and miracles all coloured green, I'm told the environmentalists are already rushing to adopt him as symbol."

Lane frowned. "Green is all that is good it appears – hell I've been wearing green and risking my life for this country along with my brother's in arms for all my life – I guess I wore the wrong shade."

-'*'-

Diana stood silently before great fire at the heart of Themyscira. The Queen and her Council had retired leaving her alone with her thoughts in this temple of government. Diana watched the eternal flame burn contemplating her future both at home and away.

From the depths of the fire the shadowy form of the goddess appeared, the first and the last, sister of Zeus, Eldest child of of Cronus and Rhea, first to be born and last to reborn. She held out her hand. In a heart beat Diana find herself transported to the heart of Olympus where a far greater fire burned in the hearth of the gods, here Hestia remained ever vigilant before her window on all things.

"Princess Diana, Daughter of Themyscira. Welcome to the heart of Olympus."

"Lady goddess." Diana knelt before her Olympian god-mother.

Hestia smiled, and bid to her. "Come sit by the fire, we await."

"Mistress Hera." Diana gasped as she saw the Queen of the gods, sat beside her sisters Hestia and Demeter of the Earth's Bounty, with them were Aphrodite of Love, Artemis of the Hunt, and Athena of Wisdom. Diana greeted each 'Potnia' whose favour bestowed upon her their godly power.

Hestia said to her. "Champion of Olympus we have brought you here to the Hearth of the gods – we have heard your meditation for every fire is as an alter to me, her flames are the light to my eyes – its warmth my hands reaching out from the heart of Olympus to where any fire burns.

"As I am Keeper of the Estates it falls to me to equip you for this new age, for I hold all godly clothing armour and equipment. When your god-mothers despatched our Herald Hermes to gift you the great and ancient weapons of the gods, reforged for the modern age, we did not give thought to your attire, because in the wider world we foresaw you dressed as one of them to live among them.

"But everything has changed."

"Why my Lady?"

Athena said to her. "We of Olympus have long recognised the power of colours and symbols, and after the attack on Earth by the thing called Starro the Conqueror, we have seen how these things _still_ matter, even now in this strange modern age."

Aphrodite said. "In a moment an image can cross the world by means of science. When the Kryptonian Adonis arose proudly wearing his peoples crest, boldly wearing the strongest of primary colours, this image was seen everywhere. There is great power in that alien symbol of red and gold."

Athena agreed. "It is not wise the Champion of Olympus should pale in comparison."

Hera extended her hand. "Olympus wishes _our_ Princess to wear _our_ bold colours and bear _our_ symbols." She gestured to Hestia, who from the flames brought forth garments, and said.

"From the Star-Maiden Astraea who Zeus embodied in the constellation of Virgo; Astraea the goddess of Justice, Innocence, and Purity comes this Zonen of Sapphire blue the colour of truth and loyalty, a girdle decorated with the Star Maiden's noble celestial gems."

Hera gestured to Zeus's favoured daughter. "Athena came forth the King of gods, fully-formed armed and armoured. Graciously passes to you first armour stained red by the blood of Zeus himself."

"From my father Zeus, at the hand of a titan's axe-hammer I was born upon the banks of the Tiphon by violence in blood." Athena said. "Wrought in gold upon the bodice is my Eagle Crest." She bowed to Hestia who from the fire delivered to Diana Athena's possessions.

"I give you my Helm, Aegis Collar and shoulder guards, my grieves, and greater vambraces." Athena explained, saying. "As the goddess of the Artisan, I have taken my blood red boots and decorated them with a white band for peace and sincerity that shall follow your every step."

Receiving the these ruby coloured tall knee high shoes from the goddess Hestia, Diana was overcome by this experience, and lost for words she accepted their generosity, bowing low before her god-mothers of Olympus.

So it was Wonder Woman fell back Earth armoured and ready for war.

-'*'-

"Clark I need to talk to you."

"What is it Diana." He said as he turned to greet her, turning from the blue coloured car. She recognised it as the vehicle he used in Metropolis before his true identity had been revealed. His father Jonathan looked up from under the hood. He banged his head on the metal, and cursed through his teeth.

"Oh boy." the younger Kent said. She felt his eyes dance across her. "That's quite a costume."

He held his hands up they were black with grease and oil, a burst of heat vision returned them to pristine skin. He cocked his head to one side, apparently thinking.

His pa resorted to an old rag, and he shook his head as he watched Diana and his son interact.

"What do you think." she asked him.

Jonathan whistled. "It looks like you're ready to fight a war or something."

"Is it really you?" Clark said as a lightening fast frown crossed his brow.

She took off her helm, perhaps she decided his enhanced vision could not see through the god forged visor. No Diana decided, he meant something else – was this warrior's attire her style? It was that very question that troubled her, she sought his frank and honest advice, she told herself. He was after all more in touch with the world than any of the league having just joined their world.

Clark lent on the wooden stall rail next to the blue car. "Okay I have to say that's so much better, now I can see your face, before with the eye slits and that vertical mouth slot, you looked intimidating. The magical fiery plume on top of that helmet doesn't help much either."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that, like Pa said, it's very olde worlde military kind of scary, the black and gold detailing on the helm and shoulder guards, that collar with more of the same, those stylised owls and snakes – they're Athena's animals right, like the stylised eagle." He paused adding. "The eagle is also the symbol of Hera and Zeus as I recall."

Diana closed her fists within her extended vambraces, she knew they were weapons in themselves. Sharp edged, protruding over the knuckles, another from behind her elbow.

"I thought as much." She told him.

"I left Olympus after receiving these things and returned to this realm, intending to show you my own colours and symbols, but the fates had other ideas.

"As I crossed the town beyond where you farm."

"Smallville."

"Yes, I saw a child run out into the street after it's dog, the animal made good progress, but the child stumbled out in front of a truck."

"I heard a horn sound." Clark noted.

Diana smiled. "Of course, I snatched the girl to me, and set her down to reunite her with her pet, the dog came to me without hesitation, but the child prized herself from my arms, her wide eyes were filled with fear, brimming with tears."

Clark nodded understanding what she saying. "I'm sorry Diana, I'm sure your magical god-mothers meant well enough, but plain to to see why your armour, magical flames and all, could be frightening – I mean that's not always a bad thing - I can imagine putting the fear of God, or event the gods into someone up to no good, but I guess to there is a balance be struck."

"You are right Clark, I was most concerned that my new appearance was frightening to this child. I have seen shock and awe often enough in the faces of those I have rescued, but never terror of me Clark, it was something I did not wish to see in the eyes of a child."

Jonathan said. "A gal like you shouldn't be covering a face like yours any road, with your eyes half the world would leap through hoops just for a smile."

"Dad." Clark laughed, while winking at her. He said. "but Pa does have a point. Covering your face – especially so completely, in western culture is something most people are uncomfortable with – it's associated with crime, and deceit.

"And my pa is right, Diana you are beautiful, and it would be a crime to hide your face."

"Perhaps." Diana said brushing the girdle around her waist and lions. "This was the Star Maiden Astraea's, a personification of justice she is often portrayed with scales in her hand." She looked at the two farmers. "I mean to say there must be balance found - as you said.

"Between being open and honest on the one hand, and strong and commanding respect on the other."

"Yes, that's what I was thinking. Equally there maybe occasions when this armour will be necessary, when we face something as strong as that Starro thing." Clark observed.

"Of course." She agreed. "There is a time and a place for everything."

Jonathan said. "A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

Diana placed Athena's helm on the straw bale by her side. "It won't start a fire." She told the older Kent, his face asked the question as clearly as if he had shouted it.

With her helmet she placed the extended vambraces, and then exposed her white striped ruby boots, by removing the grieves. Next she unfixed the half moon collar plate which was joined with the blade tipped shoulders guards. These extended across her back over the scapula to the lower Corset Cuirass. Diana lifted this assembly from around her neck and clavicles, and placed it with her Helm.

"There. How do I look now." She presented herself, to the two men from Kansas.

Stood in the barn with her first gifts, the Tiara forged from the Discus of Apollo, the golden belt from which hung the Lariat of Hestia – her golden Lasso of Truth, forged from the Gaia's girdle, and the brackets crafted from the Aegis Shield of Zeus. She retained from her armour the blood red corset Cuirass with the stylised gold eagle, diamond set girdle, and her red boots. With the armoured collar and shoulder covers removed the upper half of her chest was exposed, Diana had lived in the Patriarchy long enough to understand the mesmerising power of cleavage.

"That is much more appealing." Clark said.

"What he says." Jonathan agreed, saying. "Yup, that look is a magic super power all in itself."

Clark shook his head evidently embarrassed by him. The older man chuckled. "Now kids I'm going to grab a coffee, in the house, with your mother Clark. Is Diana staying for dinner?"

Clark slowly shook his head. Diana sensed a seriousness descend upon him.

"I think we are needed Pa. Looks like you get to trial your new look right away Diana."

"What is it?" She asked him.

He reached into his car and flicked on the radio, to share the frequencies he was listening too. The news station anchor's voice came over the speakers. "Down town Metropolis is being rocked by explosions centred in the Luthor Corp Research facility situated in the old Metro-Port district."

Twin red gold and blue blurs left Kansas in the direction of the big Apricot.


	10. Chapter 10

The building teetered on the edge of collapse. The initial explosion had ripped through the outer wall exposing it's fractured skeleton, this high tensile steel cage had sustained mortal damage. Metal beams twisted, bolts sheered. Above the vast weight of reinforced concrete boxes shifted. Inside these hard and unyielding offices screamed soft and vulnerable human beings.

Beyond hovered an attack helicopter. The right hand missile bay fired another barrage of missiles at the already damaged building.

Superman and Wonder Woman entered the fray.

Diana watched as Superman intercepted the missiles, the deadly explosives sent careering away out into the bay where they could explode harmlessly over the water. She used these precious seconds to assess the situation they faced.

With Athena's gift of wisdom; strategy in war, she quickly took stock of this man made catastrophe.

The attack chopper banked and screamed away from them, it's path would bring it back into an attack vector in due course, but until then they had a brief window of opportunity to concentrate on the situation on the ground.

Emerging from the Luthor Corp building with their undetermined prize were masked and armoured attackers. In plain sight a squad of commando's wore urban camouflage. Luthor Corp security valiantly tried to stop these men, shooting at the terrorists with their standard issue side arms. The men in black returned a far more deadly fire. High powered assault rifles droned the repetitive and deadly beat of hundreds of rounds, cutting into the building, shattering glass, and concrete. Driving the lucky back, biting the unlucky with deadly force.

Among these attacking commandos Diana's martially trained eye identified the principle antagonists. Mentally she separated these leaders from their followers, in a heart beat the Amazon formed a plan of attack.

The most striking antagonist was a large man, almost as broad as tall, he hefted an out sized weapon that roared super heated plasma like a medieval dragon might bellow green yellow flame. This tore into the building igniting the lower falls, preventing the escape.

Superman let rip with an incredible burst of breath that whipped into the building blasting out the fire.

Diana already a veteran of many DOMA mission recognised the tell tale signature of meteor rock freaks. Yet she determined this big man was not the most dangerous. His fire now laid down a defensive arc, an wall of flame that incinerated what it touched. The large man protected another slighter figure, who ploughed the ground in front him remotely. His hands dancing like some terrible mime artist, rending pavement and concrete like so much tissue paper, cracking the very foundations of the Luthor Corp Research Facility.

Diana realised the attack helicopter was little more than camouflage. The real threat was this red letter metahuman, he alone could bring the building down. The missile attack was a convenient diversion to hide the real power at work, that of super powered terrorists.

"Kal you save the building." Diana told him.

Superman nodded and acted.

Her highly attuned senses could hunt out the myriad of people caught inside. Time was as ever precious, she could hear the helicopter make it's returning arc, which meant another missile attack. That coupled with the vibrations tearing apart the building's foundations meant they had only seconds. This tall building would soon be reduced to rubble.

Superman braced his mortal frame into the gap opened up by the first missile strike. The Man of Steel's girder like constitution becoming the support for the towering structure. His innate ability to manipulate mass prevented the building collapsing around him, brought down by it's own weight, allowing him to lift the crumbling structure as a whole.

Diana hit the bad mime artist, a red blue javelin out of the darkening sky, the metahuman bounced backwards, tumbling away from the Amazon warrior. His destructive attack on the ground itself ended as her precise blow to the back of his head rendered him unconscious.

The big man carrying the heavy duty plasma weapon turned his fire onto her, high-energy ionized gas tore towards the Amazon Princess. Lightening fast reflexes placed her vambraces between him and her. By crossing her wrists the bracelets forged from the Aegis Shield of Zeus extended their magical force of protection around her, and the fire was diverted around the invisible sphere, licking and flashing around and beyond.

Powering through the plume of meteor rock powered flame Diana barrelled into the hulking figure crushing the weapon, and sending it careering out his hands while driving him to the earth. Spade like hands come grasping after at her, but lithe like a dancer the Amazon Princess flexes acrobatically away, and at the same time releases the golden strand of her Lariat. The Lasso wraps around his muscular arms and tightens as she falls away dropping to her feet pulling the big man towards her. He struggles as the magic of Hera's hearth burns, drawing life, and energy from the hot heart of Gaia, from the core of the Earth itself. A light that shines into the depths of this villain's soul.

Images of drug fuelled rage surge along the golden filament, directly into Diana's mind. She sees the truth that is this man's heart and soul. A brutalised child grows up into a even more brutal adult. Muscles honed by hours of hard training in a prison gym. A mind sharpened by relentless study. Both become strengthened and hardened by a synthetic stimulant, a venom that even now courses through his veins, increasing both his strength and violence. Yet this beast of a man, once a babe called Ostilo imprisoned in a hellish prison for his fathers crime, is now a monster called Bane, and in the light of Hera's fire he faces his true self, and with all his great strength this is one enemy he cannot defeat.

Diana hears the drumming sound of the attack Helicopter. Having banked around over the water of Metropolis harbour it comes across the dark bay low, whipping up a rain of spray as it powers back towards the Luthor Corp building for the kill.

Diana sees it's missile launcher remains cold. Instead with a hiss of hydraulics, and a whirr of motors - sounds that would be lost to any other than the supernaturally gifted amongst the dull thrub-thrub of the blades and whine from the turbo prop, grab her attention. An additional machine gun unfolds from the main cabin. Burnished like chrome, the alloy surface has all the brilliance of newly engineered metal. Computer controlled the Gatling barrel attitude changes as it seeks it's target.

With a whirr of mechanical bangs and whistles the machine gun spat flashes of fire. With deadly precision the line of bullets tear at Superman.

Diana's hunters eye follows them. Her first instinct is surprise tempered by relief. Her expectation is to see them fall upon the chest of Superman like so much rain might, and this is what she first sees. They find their target, shattering against the resilient form of the Man of Steel, and as they do so Diana sees the fragments of metal fly free. It is then second thoughts assail her, and her gut twists with fear and anger. For glinting in them is the green glow of substance K – Kryptonite.

Diana realises to her horror that someone, somehow, had seen how substance K had affected Superman during the Justice League's confrontation with Starro. It was the only logical conclusion. This weapon had been conceived with this fact in mind, designed to attack Superman.

Inevitably the first shells radioactive legacy attacked her comrades alien physiology, and seconds later the Man of Tomorrow's incredible resilience is breached.

The machine gun continues to roar spitting the unique shells at him, and the Kryptonite bullets no longer shatter, but cutting through his brightly coloured suit, now tearing at his affected flesh, biting deep and drawing blood. Hundredths of a second pass. Diana abandons Bane, her lasso returning to her hand with such speed that in due course the plaza will resound with a thunder crack, as like a bull whip the golden cord breaks the sound barrier. Yet before this can sound, Diana has already crossed the space between her and Superman, setting in motion a second sonic boom as she moves. Now she is between him and the gun.

Repelling the bullets from her bracelets, she sees Superman stagger, he groans, his teeth bared, his jaw tensed as he stifles a scream. His body is now torn apart by bullets, and he struggles broken under the building's weight, but even bloodied, and apparently wounded mortally, Superman does not yield.

Seeing that the bullets no longer reaches their target the gun shuts down, it's hot barrel smoking in the air. A missile roars as it motors slam on, driving it out of the left side mounted launcher of the Attack Helicopter. Diana lets loose her tiara. Forged from the Discus of Apollo it flashes towards the missile. At the same moment she snaps out the Lasso once more, this time the unbreakable golden line encircles the flying machine entirely, and Wonder woman drags it down towards her.

The tiara slices the missile in two, it breaks falls and explodes, even as the golden circlet returns to her hand.

Above the Helicopter's rotors shudder, snared in the gold of her Lasso. They jerk to a stop, the prop driving them is braked to a sudden halt, sending cruel destructive vibrations into the engine. Stalled the metal bird drops like a stone, but Diana sails upwards in flight catching it in her hands, breaking its fall, just enough to save the crew from the otherwise inevitable crash. Letting it fall hard enough to render them and their war machine inoperative.

Behind her she can hear the panicked occupants of the collapsing building escaping, only when the last man runs screaming from the groaning and shaking edifice, does the man from Kansas and Krypton yield. His broken bloodied body collapses, his strength spent. And as he does so – so the Luthor Corp building falls,broken and fractured, it collapses on top of the downed hero.


	11. Chapter 11

"Bruce what are you wearing?" Clark asked in a hoarse whisper as Wayne dragged him from the rubble, carrying him away from the litter of green glowing rounds.

"Steady on there _Superman_." Came the pointed reply. "You've lost a lot of blood."

"I'll be fine." Superman replied, thinking - code names; I have to remember to use the code names we've all settled on. His had been given to him by the Media, a news anchor had called him Superman. Now Lois Lane's off hand remark was been trafficked as his nome de plume. It wasn't a name he'd have chosen for himself, but it was a good enough title, one he could live with.

Superman took the water flask the masked man offered, it brought welcome relief. His eyes focused on the wider scene. It was one of devastation. The building was a wreck. What was left of the main structure teetered on the brink of collapse. A gaping wound of a hole stretched through most of the fourteen floors, taking out most of the front of Luthor-Corp's facility.

In some ways he was in as almost as bad a shape as the building.

Superman grimaced. He could see Bruce was watching him, intrigued as a bullet emerged from his flesh, driven to the surface as he healed. The poisoned slug burned, hurting as if it were red hot. Without thinking Kal plucked the deformed projectile from his chest and cast it away from him, like he would a hot cinder that had fallen from the Kent's open fire. The wound continued to heal, only now it did so almost instantly. This was not the first, nor would it be the last of these terrible bullets to emerge rejected from his body.

As strange as this experience was, it wasn't exactly new to him.

Much had happened since his first chance meeting with the Amazon Princess in Jerry's Bar, since his hands-on exposure to the glowing green contraband. She had attempted to confiscate the meteor rock from a terrorist cell, and he had ended up catching it like a baseball, only to pass out at it's touch.

Many things had changed in his life since then, but the consequences of this re-exposure to substance K were perhaps the most important.

Following his sudden collapse in Jerry's Bar he had awoken in hospital. There, after decades, his body had finally expelled a tiny alien shard. He had carried this poisonous splinter within the palm of his hand from boyhood. This needle like fragment of Kryptonite had robbed him of his heritage - his powers, rendering him frail, at times less than human, at first a sickly and weak child, becoming a clumsy and awkward teen, but after years of continuous exposure his tolerance and reaction to Kryptonite had also changed, because substance K had changed him.

Even now his body was expelling more of the poisoned bullets that would have killed a lesser man. Superman was moment by moment regaining his strength.

"Batman?" Clark Kent looked at Bruce Wayne. His eyes absorbing the simple symbol his friend wore on his chest. His logical mind filling in the rest.

The Dark Knight nodded. "Only in the dark, and never outside Gotham, at least until today."

Wayne scanned the area using a camera built into the cowl of his costume that delivered the up-scaled image to lenses in front of his eyes. Batman was flicking through channels from night vision through to infra-red. Superman watched the technology in action. His own vision powers naturally compensated for the dust, smoke and random light patterns thrown by small fires and sparking live electric wires.

"Feeling better?" Batman asked him. Bruce was watching as the Alien costume repaired itself. Even Superman was surprised by what they saw. Where there had been bloody tears in the fabric, Kal was able to see the fibres now knitted together. Looking at his dark costumed comrade he asked. "What's happening?"

"Whoever raided the lab, intended to destroy it." Batman replied. "But more importantly they came prepared for us, clearly they had information garnered from the Area 51 incident. Otherwise they wouldn't have known to hit you with Kyrptonite tipped bullets."

Superman grasped the implication. The conspiracy ran deep. "Where is Diana?"

"While she took care of the chopper, the perps on the ground made their escape. As soon as I arrived she made chase."

"You?"

"I'm hunting for clues as to the nature of the perps target here – I need to know what they got away with."

Superman stared out into the distance. Looking for Diana.

"I have her about six clicks from here, in the old industrial district that borders the port." Batman told him.

"Good place for a showdown." Kal acknowledged, as he stretched to full height. "Less chance any innocents might get hurt. There's nothing there but abandoned buildings and waste ground."

Batman looked him in the eye. "You're good to go?" He asked.

"As good as I'm going to be." Superman located Diana and immediately took to the air. The Princess danced with a new and very unexpected enemy in a macabre ballet.

The situation was immediately surreal, the initial attack on the Luthor Corp facility had been reported as straightforward, that is an act of human terrorism. An attack helicopter had launched a missile strike into one of Metropolis Harbour's most prestigious buildings. Bad in and of itself, but pedestrian enough. Yet it had not been so simple. The aircraft was a distraction, a slight of hand meant like the prettiest magicians assistant divert the eye from the metahuman lead team that had assaulted the laboratory complex housed within the concrete tower.

The Helicopter had served it's purpose in attacking him it had pulled Diana away from dealing with the thieves, who had been able to make a break for it.

Once Batman had arrived on the scene Diana had set out after these men.

Superman tapped his earwig receiver, and patched himself into the league's intranet. More help was on the way.

Now another layer was peeled back and something more extraordinary was revealed, to Superman it was even more alien than the thing that was Starro the Conqueror.

A beast from myth and magic swept past him, targeting Diana. Dipping, and diving through the air carried on vast wings, riding on a constitution forged from magic. Body of rippling muscle, hide of bronze stretched taught over iron limbs, hoofed hind feet, fore arms ending in clawed hands, talons blending the limbs of the eagle whose wings it wore, and man, whose it's contorted features set on the broad bullish neck. Long hair swept backwards imitating a vast lions mane. The Lamassu, the winged bull of heaven wheeled past the Man of Steel, its face a cruel parody of humanity melted together with bovine length and breadth, adorned by two long horns broad and potent.

For a long and awful moment for him, which in reality was a split second of measured time, Superman was transported in memory to another place. The Kent farm. The red painted barn, with it's white detailing on the doors frames and windows. To a simple stall where his beloved Titian haired high school sweetheart lay on golden straw, Lana Kent, hair painted in the red iron of her blood, her body already cold to the touch in death. Above her the blameless but responsible Long Horn cow.

The Lamassu raged, it's roars were like thunder, it's wings flashed vibrant as lightening, as he tossed his head, bringing his lance like horns back and forth seeking Diana.

The macabre and murderous dance of death was performed in flashes of colour and light. Like some airborne bull leaping dancer from the Isle of Crete, the Amazon Princess avoided the viscous horns, then in another moment, and from another more modern time, she was wrangler. She loosed her lasso around the beasts neck. This was an aerial rodeo with an uncertain outcome.

-8-

Barry Allen accelerated through the streets of Metropolis, the speed force responded to his every foot fall, coursing and surging through him a second life blood, it fed his mind and body accelerating every molecule of his being, both sustaining him and protecting him. Around him air that should boom and even burn with the friction of his passing was unmoved, as the Flash slipped through the atmosphere unheard, unseen, and unhindered. A modern day Mercury.

Above him Diana had been intercepted by some terrible thing from an ancient nightmare. Barry left the aerial combat to the flyers to whom defying gravity was a matter of course, rather than velocity. He had another mission in hand to intercept the boat which now powered out of the bay with the crew of operatives who now made good their escape.

-8-

Jo J'onzz the Martian Manhunter, entered the wrecked chopper, morphing through the bent metal, bursting out of the downed aircraft with the crew in hand.

Three men fell at her feet. She move with both grace and speed con-straining them with aluminium from the Helicopter's carcass, makeshift bonds wrought from the airframe. The lead man was readily identifiable, she could sense his contempt and strength of mind. Confidence and rank oozed from his subconscious across the mystic ether to her own mind. Reaching forward Jo lifted the man to her.

"Tell me what is going on here?"

His response was to spit in her green face. Yet the stinking phlegm passed through her insubstantial from without contact. Jo laughed.

Her intention was to remind him of her visible strength, her other worldly power.

His mind raced, he was shouting his fear, anxiety and confusion now. Above all was one image, that of the monster called Bane. Bane had been equipped with green meteor rock charged fire. A double edged sword designed to be lethal to both Kal and her, exploiting their own peculiar weakness.

Angered she stared into his eyes.

"Bobby DuBois." She said, plucking his name from his mind. The Martian Manhunter had drawn her psychic gun, and she was shooting from the hip. Aiming for his heart and soul.

The tall African American froze under her stare, beneath the mask and camouflage, his dark eyes searched her turquoise alien orbs for answers, but she was asking the questions, directly probing his mind for the truth.

Images poured forth from him, a tidal wave of fears, hopes and dreams.

Among them was a familiar face. One she knew and dreaded.

"Lex Luthor hired you to attack his own laboratory?" She said to him.

Aghast he nodded slowly unbelieving that she had read him like a cheap piece of internet fiction.

"Fzzkkkzz." The sound of his radio interrupted the complex and confused stream of images that bubbled from DuBois's troubled mind.

"Bloodsport. Come in. Over." The speaker rattled once more. "Bloodsport. Window for extraction will close imminently, we are on the water. You're on your own."

-8-

Superman hit the Bull of Heaven with all he had. This was his first encounter with magic, and fresh from being butchered by Kryptonite tipped bullets he was gambling his all. He had no idea of the limit of his strengths or the power of the supernatural messenger that had come against the Amazon Princess. He had too much invested in his own emotional response to the image of the dread horns seeking Diana's heart high above the Metropolis port district. He was reliving a very personal nightmare.

He literally grabbed the bull by the horns, his arms spread wide across the giant's skull his broad grip long enough to grab the base of each keratin growth, and tugged with all his might. He gripped the beast's neck with his legs and squeezed. Beneath him the winged monster began to toss and jerk like a rodeo cow. Superman held on limpet like, and had this creature been natural and not magical his simple grip would have altered it's mass making it like paper in his hands.

Yet even without instruction or fore knowledge of magic beyond the touch of Zatana's hand on his fevered brow, the Man of Tomorrow realised this creature was something else, something beyond his control. That he was vulnerable to its magic might.

Diana saw Superman's recklessness as an opportunity. She did not resent his impetuous attack, as a man Clark Kent was worldly wise, but as a Super Hero he had yet to live and learn. The Amazon Princess admired his boldness, if not his forethought. Yet she was grateful for the opportunity. The magical beast had no soul for the fires of Hestia to illuminate, it was raw power made manifest in the material world.

She dragged the Bull down to Earth, as it bucked and tried to hurl the man from Kansas from its back it ignored the flying Amazon. Diana made the beast pay for that. Swinging both the Bull and Superman into the air above her she span them around, before releasing them in a downward spiral, hurtling towards the abandoned industrial site beneath them.

-8-

"Dark Knight this Magician." Zatana said over the com line. "I am in position."

"Holy cow." She said as Diana released the winged creature, momentum took hold, Superman applied greater force and visceral wings could not halt the beasts fall.

"Dleihs"_Shield _Zatana whispered, she ran forward toward the falling monster. The beast crashed through the warehouse roof, as she ran inside. The great magical monster crushing the building and opening up a crater into the concrete and earth below. The concussion levelling the building and sending shock waves like an earthquake through the surrounding and thankfully abandoned and dilapidated area.

Superman dragged himself from under the monsters neck freeing his trapped leg whilst pummelling the monster with closed fists.

The creature squirmed in the pit of it's own making, shattered wings flapped, broken as it bellowed a pitiful roar.

Only then did Superman rise above it. His leg twisted, broken. Diana swept down from above carrying him clear in her arms. Her voice carried over the communication channel. "Magician execute portal."

"This is a bigger one, Diana." She answered. Steeling herself for the spell to come.

"You can do it." The Amazon responded. Her voice full of reassurance and confidence. The kind of certain answer that only Diana could give.

Zatana smiled thinking easy to say, she reached into her waistcoat pocket and brought out an ancient charm, the gift from the Amazon Mystic called Menalippe. It was a mystical key that channelled the powers of Themyscira. The paradise Island of the Amazons, was at the same time a fortress. Themyscira stood guard over a mystical portal to another realm of existence called by the ancients Hades – the underworld. Here be monsters, and this was where Diana needed the Magician to magic this latest escaped beast of myth and supernatural power."

"Come on Zee." Bruce said over the com. "That Hydra in Ireland was bigger – wasn't it?"

"It was half the size." Zatana responded. She wondered what the Detective had found in the remains of the Luthor Corp Lab. Her fingers closed over the Talisman.

"Smood Rood nepo" _Dooms Door Ope__n_

There was a flash of light as the crater took on another form becoming in that instant a doorway to hell. Screaming it's bovine roars of anger and pain the Lamassu fell kicking through the dimensional rift. With a crackle and bang. A Flash and the sound of air whistling into nothingness, Heaven's Bull disappeared from the mortal realm.

Zatana smiled a tired expression of pride and triumph as she fainted from her unparalleled magical effort, falling into the hands of the waiting Martian Manhunter. Jo J'onzz carried her from the wrecked factory and away from the scene.

-8-

Diana watched as Kal's face once again betrayed pain. She felt guilt, in taking down the beast she had injured him. He tensed the muscles of his leg, they wrapped around the broken bones, obeying him forcing the femur to align. As she watched she saw his alien physiology heal itself.

She realised Superman was changing and growing before her eyes in ways not immediately discernible.

They would have to talk about his new ability to withstand Kyrptonite, to heal from wounds the meteor rock inflicted on his otherwise resilient hide. They would need to talk about magic, and the rules that governed this supernatural power, to which he was also vulnerable.

"Superman." She said gaining his attention. "You have been through much today, I'm sorry I made it worse.

"No." He said before she could apologise further. "It's my fault I acted hastily, you had the beast lassoed. I should have thought it through."

Diana sensed something was going unsaid, there had been more to his reaction than a misjudged attack. "How are you now?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Kal said. "I just need to feel the sun on my face. That's all." He smiled and looked west to where it was still daylight. Then back to her eyes, his look lingered, sad and forlorn. Lost in memories, she could see that much, her instinct for truth, her powers of empathy and compassion were pulling her toward him.

"What was that thing?" He asked, turning his hand brushed her arm, as she drifted to him. He might as well have asked why wasn't I able to best it or why did it have the power to hurt me?

"Magic has it's own rules." She replied. "The Lamassu is one of the most powerful beings of myth, a trans-dimensional entity. A guardian of immense strength according to legend. I have never before seen one, it comes from the depths of history, a time before there were Amazons."

"What does this mean? Why and how would an attack – a terror assault in Metropolis become a battle with Metahumans aided by beings from another ancient reality?"

Diana shook her head. "I have no idea who could bring together such an alliance, of men, supermen, and demigods – but it is a power both ancient and far reaching."

"Very far reaching – if this pact includes Starro the conqueror." Superman remembered the incident at Area 51. Diana nodded, it was only logical to link the work done there with this laboratory, part of Luthor Corps high tech research effort. Especially since Lex Luthor was the common denominator linking both the government Groom Lake Facility and this his private one in Metropolis.

"Barry is following their boat – let's hope it can lead us to some answers." Diana told him. "Are you up to finding out."

"It'll take more than a little rodeo ride to tire me out little sister." He responded affecting a deep western drawl, she suspected it was an impression of someone, an old movie star she thought as she filtered her memories of things Diana Prince had seen in more relaxed times.

She settled on an answer. "I guess I shouldn't expect anything less than true grit for you."

With that she turned in the air, and fell following after the signal coming from Barry Allen's transponder, confident he would follow her even into hell itself.


	12. Chapter 12

The Flash accelerated across the open water of Metropolis bay. Cresting the waves he ran on the surface of the water, his feet moving far too quickly to sink into the sea. Fast closing the distance between him and the by comparison much slower twin hulled boat. With the power of the speed force smoothing his passage Barry ran quickly enough to be invisible to her crew. He made no effort to intervene at this stage, instead accelerating away from the fleeing craft.

This run out into the ocean seemed an odd course for these techno-thieves to take. On the face of it this was a fast but still a relatively small boat in a very big ocean, and the scarlet speedster couldn't see these crooks making this a transatlantic jaunt, the boat was clearly designed for racing, not transatlantic crossings. The Flash extrapolated it's course out into the Atlantic running reconnaissance, tracking across the water in wide sweeping arcs, back and forth, checking out the area ahead of the Off Shore Power Boat.

The Flash figured the raiders were going to do one of two things, either they'd turn and make for shore, and if so he was confident the League would be there to meet them. Otherwise some where out in the wide expanse of blue there was to be a rendezvous with party or parties unknown. His gut told him it was going to be the the latter.

He was right.

The flash hit an invisible wall, he was zagging or zigging, things suddenly weren't too clear for him, his head and body were in a downward spin. Barry felt himself bouncing away from what had been a jarring glancing blow. An imperceptible but solid energy field and his own velocity defying power hadn't played nice together.

Of that he was certain. Just as sure was the thing he'd seen and comprehended in the split second the Flash had made contact with the invisible wall. Hundredths of a second could be a long time in Barry's accelerated world.

He didn't need to be a Green Lantern to recognise an alien space craft and this shining disc ticked every box, it could have burst from the pages of a pulp science fiction magazine, but it didn't stand out, not to normal sight. Barry couldn't be sure if it was really here in a material sense. The other thing the Flash knew in this moment was he was wet. The explosive concussion of his crash, had sent him downwards repelling him from under the flying saucers rim, and so down into the deep water. How deep he was right now, he couldn't be sure, but any second now, he'd have to breathe. At least he was good for a few seconds more, the Flash could do a lot in a few seconds. If only it were that simple, his limbs seemed to belong to someone else. The after effects of the force field he had encountered. So for what seemed like an eternity, Barry struggled to regain control, as the fractions of a seconds past, the Flash was driven down into the darkening blue like a bullet fired from a gun.

A force connected with him. Everything stopped, and by rights the impact should have snapped him in two, but it didn't. All of a sudden the Flash was moving back upwards through the water. No discernible wake, no churning turbulent waters, there was only a sense of speed. Again physics told Barry Allen, Central City's leading Forensic Scientist, that at this speed the ocean should boiling around him – yet there was little to no disturbance in the salt water. This sensation was not unfamiliar to him, it was like this when he ran, because he Flash didn't encounter any friction in the air. Yet this was under the sea, and Barry wasn't moving, he wasn't doing any of this. The Flash was being carried instead of doing the carrying.. The bizarre inexplicable lack of resistance could mean only one thing, Barry decided, he must have found another kindred spirit. How else could a man swim so fast?

The Swimmer drove him back upwards. How long did it take to get the bends? Barry thought about it, and figured although he'd gone deep really quickly – it had been too quickly, that it was too short a time at such depths for his body to react to the pressure. The aquatic speedster carried him up and out of the water, he felt sure they must have looked like submarine fired missile taking to the air.

Returning to the sea moments later by virtue of Gravity the man held him upright.

It appeared to the Flash that the aquatic super-man was treading water with just his feet, because they stood, or rather the man in orange gold and green stood with the waves lapping around his knees. While he was held there casually at arms length

"Thanks – I think I have control of my legs again." The Flash said, he began to run on the spot, which was more than enough to keep him from sinking. The fine spray this created fell like rain around them.

Barry held out his hand. "I'm called the Flash." He said.

"I am Orin – King of Posideonis, Capital of old Atlantis." The man called Orin crossed his arms across his chest. He looked regal and non too friendly.

"No kidding."

"What do you know about the vessel which you attacked?" Came the question. Spoken with an air of command, by a man used to being obeyed.

"Nothing." Flash replied. "And I didn't attack it. Not deliberately any way." Barry reasoned that his first contact with the alien might have been considered aggressive. "More to the point I didn't see it until I frankly ran slap-bang into it." He looked at inexpressive face of the self proclaimed King. He asked the important question of him. "Is it one of yours?"

"No. It is not."

"Then..?"

"It rose from the bottom of the sea. From a great depths, in doing so disturbed many tons of rock and sand even before it took to the water."

"So you detected this undersea quake?" Barry reasoned. "Followed the cause, and saw me encounter it?"

Orin nodded. "As you saw, now it rests hidden on the surface. Honestly I'd hoped you perhaps knew more than I." The Sea King turned across to where Flash estimated the hidden vessel's location. "Whatever it is – it has been here for a long time."

"How long?"

"My best scientist tells me the sedimentary rock displaced by this vessel was laid down millions of years ago."

"You don't mean..."

"That the craft was sealed into the earth's crust itself, buried beneath the sea – yes I mean that. This vessel was here when the seas teemed with reptiles, and the land Dinosaurs."

"There is a boat moving in this direction, I mean that – whatever it is, maybe be it's destination. If it isn't it's one huge coincidence."

Aquaman frowned.

Flash continued. "A team raided a Luthor-Corp lab." Flash hoped this Atleantean knew what Luthor-Corp was science as Disney was animation. "We, that is the Justice League," again Flash hoped that name meant something, "have no idea why – that is what they stole. I was following them to try and find out who they are working for."

"Perhaps we should just ask them." The Sea King stated, then he disappeared under the water speeding towards the raiders boat.

-8-

Batman scoured the collapsing buildings sub basement. In his hand the technological lens of the electromagnetic spectrum scanner swept the dark crime scene like Sherlock Holmes would wield his magnifying glass. This phone sized device, whose touch sensitive surface displayed the residual trace signals from still operative computer systems. The Dark Knight reflected the Cowboy could probably see these energies, and Diana with her hunters eye could magically track down pretty much anything she set her sights upon. Bruce felt the dynamic in their League shifting. Clark and Barry brought a new more masculine meta-powers into the previously feminine equation. The Dark Knight had no illusions, he understood his strengths and weaknesses. After all analysis of the facts was his forte.

A lifetime ago his late father had diagnosed him as another Wayne genius. The curse of a family of engineers, industrialists, inventors, and in Thomas Wayne a doctor and a surgeon. Bruce was a playboy. What was it the gossip columnist had said? "The apple has fallen far from the tree." Then what Gotham did not know was that a heart broken little boy's genius had been channelled into the dark. Nature had contributed intelligence tempered by a peculiar single minded madness. Bruce knew it, he was an Autistic Savant. If Joe Chill hadn't that night ended Thomas and Martha's lives so suddenly. If his parents hadn't died so brutally, by the snap of Chill's gun, lit by the flash from the barrel in the dark of Crime Alley – then life would have nurtured Bruce very differently.

Fate decreed different, and as it was Bruce was orphaned that night. He was raised by a immigrant soldier, a former special airborne forces operative, and a field medic. A English gentlemen's gentlemen. Alfred had done the best he could. He'd watched Bruce grow up to pretend to sip champagne while chasing girls with clinical efficiency. Acting out the role of an attentive lover – as a means to an end. Bruce didn't do relationships – couldn't do relationships, because as an autistic scale genius he was emotionally trapped. Forever a weeping child on the dark damp pavement kneeling beside the twitching dying bodies of the only people he'd ever been able to love. Emotions closed down, shut out unused, the Dark Knight's mind was free to process the multitude of tiny details through the sieve of deductive reasoning, performing mental gymnastics the equal of any his body was asked to complete. Even now as he repelled down the taught nylon line, down the elevator shaft, it was all a business of arithmetic and geometry expressed through iron hard muscle. Releasing the shaped charge from his grappling gun barrel the explosion cut into the server vault.

The warm air hit Bruce as he dropped through the hole, and as a precaution he snapped shut his cowl - covering his mouth with the breather device.

The ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus port in the front of the wall of servers was all he needed. Seconds later the computer woven into the battle armour of his costume had forged a link with the Luthor-Corp Network. The passkey had been an expensive purchase, but the back-door into Lex Luthor's system had been a prize worth paying for. Diana would not approve of his greying the boundaries, her rules, by indulging in industrial espionage. Bruce hoped he'd be able to compartmentalise that memory well enough not to think about the how, should he need to explain the why. As the data ran through his suit to his own system in the cave under Wayne Manor, Bruce realised he had no choice.

-8-

Superman and Wonder Woman arrived at the raiders boat to see a fight in progress. On deck the Flash pounded, dodged and weaved around the giant of a man, his gun broken and useless, disarmed at speed by Barry's fleet fingers. Then from the deck a second figure shot at Diana and him. No Superman calculated it was directly at him. Diana was already falling upon the shooter. While the bullet sped towards him, he turned aside, while flying down into it's path, as it passed him by he tasted the bitter scent of substance K.

The assassin's aim had been perfect. If he weren't faster than a speeding bullet that is, it had been a dead shot. The deadly bullet had been targeted at Superman's heart. Kal liked to believe this first heavy calibre K slug would have bounced off him, or rather he hoped that he was recovered enough for that to be true, but cautious after earlier mistakes, he avoided trouble rather than diving headlong into it.

Coming to the boat he saw beneath the water another battle being fought. Even as he ripped the drug delivery system from off the back of the big man, causing him to shudder, letting Barry land a blaze of punches to his head. Superman saw in the water the strangest mutation he had yet seen, it was as if someone had loosed a creature from Doctor Moreau's island. Half Man half Shark engaged another man in orange gold, and green, fighting each other in the water under the boat.

Barry looked up from the downed giant, registering where Supeman's gaze was directed. The Flash explained. "That's King Orin of Posideonis, Capital of Lost Atlantis. Personally – if I was him, I'd go with something like Aquaman. It's snappier. The other guy goes by the name of King Shark. I don't know how he got so good looking, but it's a face only a mother could love."

Superman had a lot of questions, but even at the accelerated rate he and Barry were able to converse at, there wasn't time, as a figure in black barrelled into him. Initially it was non event. Frail humanity grabs at a Man of Steel, for that reason Superman held back, still conscious that he was yet to master the full extent of his abilities in this new cardboard and paper world, but then Superman found himself being shaken to his very core. This was the figure who had attacked the foundations of the Luthor-Corp research facility, and Superman felt that same destructive power. Some how this terrorist was able to create shock waves in matter, through the ground it acted like a targeted earthquake, mimicking seismic energy. Yet even at sea, this metahuman was able through contact with Superman shake the Man of Steel as surely as it he had shaken the steel framed tower.

The boat shuddered and Superman did the only thing he could. He took to the air. His attacker hung onto him, his grip more than tenacious, it was supernatural.

"How do you like the touch of Terra-Man?" The Texan drawl was unmistakable.

Through gritted teeth the Man of Steel replied. "How do you like altitude?"

Superman was been shaken to his core, he felt nauseous, and his thoughts were confused half dream, half reality, with the boundaries becoming more and more blurred. It was like his synapses were being assaulted, making his body feel trapped, enclosed, paralysed, but up, up, and away came as naturally to him now as breathing.

The self identified Terra-Man held on, his grip like a magnet to metal, but as Superman climbed the air thinned and cooled, so Terra-Man began to shake too, shiver with cold, gasp for breath. In that moment Supeman's thoughts cleared. He ensured the metahuman found unconsciousness, before Superman dived back to the boat.

-8-

Jo closed in on the location of the mysterious space craft. The Flash had relayed the position of the hidden vessel via his com link. Jo had then established all the details she could from his memory. For the moment she chose to keep quiet about the real nature of the League's intranet. The reality was subtlety different from the advanced communication system she had sold to her team mates. For it was the Martian Manhunter that was the link pin – Jo J'Onzz was the how and why technology worked, or more simply she was using her powers. Jo had no doubt that her colleagues would be uncomfortable with idea she was dipping into their minds. Ollie and Bruce especially had expressed and unexpressed reservations about her telepathic reach. Jo also had issues of trust. As an alien alone displaced by both time and space, Diana and the Amazons had helped with those fears and served as her template. Upon meeting the men of the league this subtle approach especially given Amazon sensibilities had seemed the logical approach. Now Jo wasn't so sure.

The Martian Manhunter cautiously approached the energy field that displaced light and rendered the alien craft invisible. Jo considered how different the world might have been had Clark Kent not encountered Kryptonite so young, and had matured into his powers. Perhaps he rather than Diana would have founded the league and served as a template for Jo J'Onzz life on Earth. Perhaps Jo would have been more trusting of these human males.

The Martian Manhunter peered into the shell of the saucer shaped craft and her deep held suspicions were confirmed. The Sea King was correct. This was an ancient vessel. In another time and place it would have represent something sacred to people of Mars, but sometimes Jo thought to herself even angels fall.

-8-

Diana watched as Superman returned to the boat with his unconscious captive. She hoped that perhaps this raider the Man of Steel brought back to them, would know something more concrete about their mission objective. Thus far her golden lariat had plumbed the depths of Bane's tragic soul. Unfortunately he was but a mercenary for hire at the right price.

"Need to know." Had been the simple answer. He hadn't needed to know much, and he hadn't been inclined to ask any questions.

King Shark was dumped before by the Swimmer. Flash called him Aquaman. It seemed a fitting title.

"From Posideonis." Diana noted, recognising the crest he wore as a belt buckle.

He nodded. She cocked her head quizzically as she cast the lasso around the mutated man meets shark. King Orin held King Shark as the magic took hold. In the brief moment the unfortunate chimera struggled Diana's magic rope touched the Atlantean's hands, so it was that Diana touched both swimmers thoughts and memories.

"Thank you Arthur." She said. Noting the surprised look on Aquaman's face. "I understand now why Posideonis's King could break millennia of traditional isolationism. For she has bowed before a King whom she cursed to die from birth. A prince who learned about truth and justice from a man of compassion, a surfacer."

"Princess Diana, do you make a habit of delving into the souls of strangers." Arthur asked. His voice measured. Diana sensed both anger and conflicting good humour. She relied on her smile to defuse the former and encourage the latter.

"Forgive me Prince of Atlantis, but your soul reached out to mine by the light of Hestia's fire forges into Gaia's chain, Arthur Curry made you who you are. He gave you his name and his values."

"That I will not deny." Arthur also called King Orin replied.

"My father will kill you for this Amazon." King Shark spat.

Diana returned her attention to the shark faced captive at their feet. She lent close to the razor filled jaw of the grey skinned metahuman, and stared into his dark eyes. "I'm on first name terms with the gods of Olympus, angry gods don't scare me Nanaue but by all means send my regards to daddy Kamohoali'i when next you see him. I'm sure the Shark god will be impressed by his son's chosen line of work as a thug for hire."

Nanaue recoiled from Diana as if she were a hot flame.

"What does he know?" The Flash asked

Diana shook her head. "I'm sorry, he's as ignorant as the big man Bane."

"Need to know Mercenary." Barry nodded.

"Then you have learned nothing of value Diana?" The familiar voice was lacking something of it's usual warmth.

Wonder Woman turned to face Jo J'Onzz. Her friend came to land on the narrow deck, stood between her and Superman.

"I was hoping you'd have better luck." Diana said. "Did you find the hidden space ship?"

Jo smiled, and she reached out and took Diana's hands, bringing them together in hers. It was a compassionate gesture that seemed out of place.

Jo looked at Diana saying. "I have seen into the Flying Saucer. It is a relic of a former age." The Martian Manhunter's fingers drifted to her wrists. "An ancient power."

"Jo what's wrong." Diana asked. "You seem out of sorts – not yourself."

"I have seen so much Princess in my life, so much history – children like you, like the daughters of Themyscira, you can't imagine it."

Diana suddenly wanted to break free from her friend's touch. There was something very wrong here, something almost mechanical about the perfect inflections of Jo's voice. Diana looked at Kal. In a split second she saw him read her features and his face now mirrored her expression of confusion and concern. Wonder Woman tried to free herself of the Martian Manhunters grasp - to part her wrists, but to her horror she saw that metal cuffs materialised around her vambraces, binding her bracelets and so robbing her of her magic gifts.

Jo rudely pushed her to the deck. Hard and fast. Stunned, powerless. Diana struggled to free herself.

Superman acted. Kal reached out to her past the green skinned officer of the law. Reaching out to her, confusion and concern in his face, replaced by uncomprehending surprise, so he too was unprepared for the full extent of Martian's treachery.

With super human speed the green hand thrust a green K blade at Superman's heart.


	13. Chapter 13

Barry Allen saw something weird going on, Jo had pushed Diana to the floor, they'd been holding hands and then Wonder Woman had fallen. Was this some weird Amazon dominance ritual thing? He wasn't sure. The Flash's perception shift was seamless as he slipped into super accelerated norms, and his state of confusion changed fast. He saw Diana's expression of shock and horror. Her face spoke a thousand words. Superman had seen it too, and he was moving, but so was the Martian Manhunter.

The Flash saw Jo's hand carry the knife towards Superman's chest. She was moving very quickly, but he moved faster, like a gunfighter going for the draw he was there. But she struck up with more brute force. The Flash couldn't hope to block her super strong blow, equally for the same reason he couldn't push back against the Man of Steel. The Scarlet Speedster however had other strengths.

Superman was mid-step, almost in flight to Diana. Wonder Woman struggled in vain to break the magic curse of the bonds around her bracelets. Barry now took hold of Superman's arm vibrating both himself and the Man of Steel. The blade flashed past them both, moving through Superman's now insubstantial hyper-vibrated form. The Martian Manhunter's blow missed it's target. Superman staggered, shocked by the Flash's trick, yet rolling away from the blow. With everything happening at super speed, they were all almost on a even playing field of movement and perspective. Surprised and angry Superman's heat vision flared hitting the K-metal blade, even as he fell to Diana's side. The crystal shard shattered. Hot fiery light tore past Jo J'Onzz, but the Martian did not flinch.

"It's not Jo." Diana said with utter conviction, as Kal's face came to rest by hers.

Superman reached down blind, keeping his eyes which glowed red like two hot coals locked on the interloper.

Barry saw Superman's steel-like fingers quickly find the metal bands that were holding Diana's wrists fast, snapping her free.

Then from the left swept down a green avenging angel. It was then Barry saw double as the Martian Manhunter slammed into her doppelgänger. In that moment the boat broke apart, becoming a flaming fireball of fuel and burning plastics. The explosive wave carrying him upwards. Hundredths of a second past.

One of the two Martians fled, tumbling backwards into the sea away from the flames. Superman grabbed Barry with one hand. With the other he collected the unconscious raider he'd subdued earlier. Flight with Superman was an odd sensation like weightlessness. The muscular man's touch was light, almost non existent, it was as if he were levitated. From Barry's perspective all the better for that.

The Flash saw Diana dragging up King Shark with her into the air, the demi-god still entrapped by her lariat. Meanwhile Aquaman had pushed Bane into the blue following after him.

The raider's composite hulled vessel twisted and buckled as secondary explosions broke it apart completely. Bombs were going off.

Diana flew towards Superman and the Flash.

"Are you all right?" Superman asked the Amazon, his concern self evident.

"I am." She told him. Beneath her the strange chimera limbs pumped, flaying in the air, his tail slapped back and forth useless in blue sky.

"That explosion was quite deliberate." Wonder Woman observed as they flew back over the fast sinking flaming wreck. "Fire to coincide with the real Martian Manhunters return." She observed.

"Certainly gets rid of evidence." Superman noted.

"And operatives." Barry suggested.

Diana nodded. "Perhaps that was the intention. Clearly the real power behind this attack both knows our weaknesses and wanted to remain anonymous, hence the hired muscle." Barry watched her hunter's eye searching the waters. She was already moving when the Flash saw their enemy revealed at last.

From out the flames something rose carrying a metallic canister not unlike a tall polished gas cylinder branded with Lex-corp signature 'L', in it's skeletal silvery arms. Barry watched as the machine moved like metal origami, it's shape changing as mercurial metals flowed and reformed. Swallowing the stolen cargo it held into itself.

The mechanical shape shifter, rose phoenix like from the burning fuel oil, red humanoid limbs formed around the kaleidoscopic mechanical skeleton. Finally a white face devoid of human emotion and expression was enclosed in a blue glassy face mask that folded around it's features like a second skin.

The Dark Knight's voice whispered across the League's Communication network. "Pick-up enroute."

Superman swooped low, releasing the Flash onto the water. "Take Terra-Man to Bruce. He's organised transport."

Flash had the call come through his earwig too. Casting the unconscious thug over his shoulder he accelerated away. Aquaman still had hold of the large man called Bane. Barry decided to free up his new found ally so he could swim free. The Flash swept over to him snatching hold of Bane, who Arthur had secured, saying. "I've got this one. You check out the wreckage."

Aquaman nodded, gladly releasing Bane, before sinking out of sight.

The Flash powered away, letting the water carry the bigger man's weight, the Flash accelerated dragging him across the sea, the protective aura of the Speed Force insulating Bane from the worst of experience, as at these speeds the water became like concrete.

Using the signal from the Dark Knight the Flash homed in on the running lights of the very custom version of Wayne Industries equipped Bell-Boeing Osprey V22 twin turbo prop rotor Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft. The wing nacelles turned to produce vertical hover, and the airframe came in low over the water at the same time opening the rear loading bay.

-'S'-

Diana recognised the red and blue of the Manhunter as it emerged from the wreckage of the burning boat. The costume had been worn by past vigilantes, many had been heroes, for nearly a thousand years the colours had meant something worthy, but this she knew was a bitter conceit. The true origin of the Manhunters was far far older still. The Wisdom of the Amazons told of the legendary Golem Enforcer's of justice had turned on their masters, the Guardians of the Universe. The myths of these fallen ones were ancient even to the Amazon's. The Manhunter's story was told in hushed whispers even in the courts of Mount Olympus.

Now she was about to go face to face with a sentient machine who had been constructed when the universe was still young.

As she approaches the red enemy Diana becomes aware of Jo J'onzz's mind reaching out into hers. The Martian Manhunter emerged some distance away from burning wreckage, rising from the water angry, her rage inflamed by the explosion that she was convinced had been designed with her in mind. Just as the Machine had known how to neutralise Diana, the Manhunter had known how to stop the Man of Steel. This conspiracy ran very deep indeed.

The Martian Manhunter's emotions were clear as she communicated to Diana all she had learned about the flying saucer from the lost aeons of the Earth.

Diana found the new memories arrived within her mind. She remembered Jo communicating with the invisible flying saucer as if she were the Martian. Diana struggled to comprehend the urgency and the anger that Jo J'Onzz sent, along with information these memories contained. Wonder Woman knew she had to both remain alert, ready, as a warrior, and assimilate this vital information to be her best. Yet as she closed in on the red android Manhunter there was so little time to understand.

The mechanical transformer forged its fists into two great hammers. The liquid metal swelled and morphed as the machine charged at her. Within it's chest she saw a cavity where a heart might be. This hole was filled with what could only be a purloined power source, a stolen Green Lantern. It was proof positive of murder. The stolen battery of power meant one thing, a member of the Corps had died. The Lantern had been hacked to replace the original long destroyed device that had enabled this machine it's unique powers, granting the Manhunter the ability to control the substance of it's own metallic form once more.

Diana understood these things, as Amazon learning combined with Jo J'onzz psychic transmission.

This Manhunters mechanical metamorphic abilities were enabled by green light energy cell. Where the current Lantern Corps used that pure energy to form constructs from light, the Manhunters actually shifted and altering their shape, creating machine parts, extended weapon arrays, mechanical devices from the mercurial multi-state metallic structure.

Diana dodged the hammers as they came together crashing above the water, turning the sea into frothing maelstrom and concussive shock wave catapulted Wonder Woman away from the red clad android.

Wonder Woman caught herself, and swung back as Superman dropped down to engage the Mechanical Shape Shifting Crimson Avenger. The Manhunter's hammer fists crashed toward the Man of Tomorrow. Superman's outstretched hands caught them and then like a man trapped in a monstrous vice, he pushed back against the machine. For a moment there was stalemate.

It was more time than a super fast trained warrior like Diana required. Her right hand grabbed her Tiara, the left her lasso. The gold band took the high road zipping magically past Superman's head. The Amazon aim true and deadly. The magical weapon forged from the discus of Apollo sliced into the head of the android.

Jo's mind was still present with hers. Diana realised the same was true for Superman. He knew her unfolding strategy for as she took the low road sweeping beneath the enemy Kal-El kicked both red booted feet squarely into the Manhunters chest, directly at the power cell embedded within. Superman's hands grasping the metal of the Mechanical shape shifters hammers, his fingers digging into the metal deforming it.

Wonder Woman's lariat was already in the air as she dived, loosed by her left hand at the same time the tiara was thrown. The Golden cord shot forward wrapping around the soulless machines legs.

She took advantage of the voice in her mind calling to her friend, and Jo rapidly came to her side. The communication was two way. Taking hold of the unbreakable rope together the two super beings who had trained together as sister Amazons on the beaches of Themysicra pulled. Yanking at the Manhunters legs as the Man of Steel wrenched the androids arms. Jo continually bridging their thoughts and so enabling them to coordinate their actions.

Their enemies mechanical transformations were interrupted. The Android was dragged apart. Hot metal fell from above, Diana crossed her bracelets the shield of Zeus formed above an invisible aegis against the molten hail.

The broken body of the Manhunter fell back exposing the stolen Luthor-Corp Cylinder in it's belly. It began rebuilding even as it tumbled away from them. Energy became matter. The stolen Green Lantern within it burned bright, and missiles rocketed away from the morphing torso. For Superman these bursting projectiles were like so much rain, he charged down towards the android.

Then the space ship arrived, skimming low over the surface of the Atlantic. Summoned by it's master.

This was the vessel that Jo had read telepathically. The living machine came to the android like a loyal hound running to sound of the hunters horn.

Jo J'Onzz shared her knowledge mind to mind once more. Diana saw this living spaceship had been inert, asleep, held in suspended animation for millions of years. Until this Manhunter had called out to it.

Across the joined telepathic understanding via Jo's unique mind as a conduit, Diana was able to see the flying saucer as Superman perceived it, and he shared her empathy with the animal it truly was.

The vessel was alive in almost every biological sense, its hull a metal laced shell, grown by the living space ship.

The irony of this moment was not lost on Diana, the living space ship had been bred to assist a soulless machine. It was a good and loyal servant of a cold heartless master.

The vehicle from yesteryear swept upwards toward the Man of Tomorrow, it's guns blazing, hyper accelerated explosive projectiles slammed into Superman, driven by the biomagnetic field of the saucer. These railguns slammed the chemical bombs into him, exploding in bursts of intense heat and flame. The ship might be a living fossil, but like the Shark this ancient flying saucer remained deadly and purposeful a hundred million years and more after coming into being, the space ship drove Superman back. It's covering fire held Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter under her defensive aegis.

The Android fell towards the craft. It seemed as if the stolen Luthor-Corp Cylinder was lost.

But the King of the Seas had another idea. Bursting out of the water propelled by his incredible swimming momentum Aquaman smashed into the falling mechanoid ripping the purloined cask from out of the machines belly. Pushing the android towards the living space ship, he kicked back to the water, throwing the 'L' branded container towards Diana.

In a desperate move the Manhunter diverted all it's weapons against the Luthor-Corp container. In the same instance so did it's loyal ship.

There was an explosion of fire concentrated on the metal cylinder. The flash of luminescent green as Substance K gasified in the heat, followed by a crack of thunder, and then steel cask was gone vaporised by the concentrated fire storm.

Diana's hunter's eye saw movement in the midst of the explosion.

Something had been released from the cannister, and the something had just left the surface of the earth, gone supersonic in less than a second, before attaining escape velocity.

From across the sea as the Batman's plane approached, the Flash registered it too, his eyes saw the super speeding object, his thoughts part of the Martian Manhunter's telepathic intranet. Superman was even now tracking the silver blur with his telescopic vision as bemused by the bullet like projectile as any one.

The Saucer swallowed the broken android, before it's ancient but highly effective electro-magnetic graviton propulsion engaged sending it sweeping space-ward after the Luthor-Corp's Cylinder's contents.

Diana knew whatever this silver bullet was, it was the prize the Manhunter sought.

It was a race. Only Jo, Diana and Kal could participate. Summoning the gift of Hermes, Diana like Apollo in his chariot, shot skywards beside the two aliens, the invisible second skin of magic flight protecting her from the cold of space. Kal and Jo impervious by virtue of their biology.

Curving north the eye of Artemis the Hunter guided her and them in sync with their own perceptive vision abilities. The small projectile, she estimated it was no larger than a football, with the mass of say a young child, sped away north. She wondered what was so special about this object? Clearly the Manhunter's wanted it desperately enough to emerge from hiding. How long had it been since the machines had been seen? Centuries certainly.

The object was tracking to the North Pole, heading for geostationary polar orbit. The Saucer Ship was determined to stop it. Diana's empathy could sense that. Jo's telepathy confirmed it.

The stellar image came into focus, plucked from the mind of the living machine, via the telepathic Jo J'Onzz. The emotionless machine had come to a conclusion, directing its space steed. If the Manhunters could not have it's quarry, no one could. "No man escapes the Manhunters. Even your agent Jor-El." Jo plucked the message from the living ship.

The name struck home to Kal-El. Diana recognised it, and his reaction. The name belonged to his long dead biological father. The mystery deepened.

"Hera!" She said. "They seek another relic of Krypton!"

"They mean to destroy it." Jo said.

Superman accelerated away from them, but he was not fast enough. From the Saucer streaked a projectile. The missile accelerated so very quickly to just short of light-speed. The almost instantaneous explosion miles high over the earth appeared like a brief second sun above the North Pole. The nuclear Shock wave rode across the void. Beyond the alien invader Diana, Jo, and Kal saw the wave of burning gas expanding outwards, then in the mist of flaming vapour something invisible appeared, revealed by the nuclear fire. A great crystalline inverted Pyramid in geostationary orbit directly above the North Pole. Its three sided shape unmistakable from the bottom most point to where the triangle was at it's widest, there the borders angled back on both sides before the flat horizontal top forming a pentagon, a shield. The same shape as the crest upon Superman's chest, rendered in three dimensions.

Diana grasped the obvious. "The object was heading for that.." Words failed her, she improvised. "That... Fortress – Satellite."

Superman nodded. Like an artificial moon, the vast structure flickered unharmed by nuclear blast.

The Saucer's internal systems recharged the railgun-like magnetic accelerators, and the Manhunter Android commanded his space steed to fire three more hyper accelerated nuclear projectiles, aimed directly at them.

Diana crossed her bracelets, could Zeus's aegis shield withstand an assault like this, she had no idea, she could only pray.


	14. Chapter 14

"The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph" His master said. "Will herald a new age of extraplanetary exploration." That had been sixty four rotations of this the third planet around the single yellow dwarf star since the crash. Something had intercepted his masters vessel as it entered the atmosphere of this world. This interstellar Probe had escaped the unexpected attack only to come down some distance from it's intended landing site further west on the northern hemisphere, called locally the American continent. Ploughing into the New Mexico Desert outside a town called Roswell.

By the time the on board systems had self repaired sufficiently, the Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph had been secured by the natives. According to default protocols hibernation followed in lieu of further instructions.

The basic intelligence of the long dormant animal had slept for all of these sixty four Terran years.

Now as it fell from the sky exploded back to the third planets surface by a tremendous explosion, the Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph finally received a signal from his master. He remembered his masters instructions. He remembered his first moments of awareness.

"Centuries of selective breeding had bred the ultimate domestic animal, able to take many useful forms." His master had brought him to a vast room where eleven other people had listened to his master speak. The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph recalled these things as he fell to Earth, although his comprehension of the sounds exact meanings were incomplete, he still remembered them. "Fellows of the Science Council of Krypton, it is time to reconsider the long standing prohibition on extraplanetary activities. The use of Phantom imaging to monitor other civilisations has it's inherent limitations. By using this domestic creature." His master had said, patting a small undefined fur ball rested on a pedestal in the great room. "We can actively survey other worlds to assess the extent of the continuing threat to pan-galactic security."

One his masters colleagues had spoken saying. "Surely a simple creature as this, even if equipped with appropriate technological devices, is inferior to the Phantom Viewer, by using the trandimensional nature of the Zone we are not limited by time or space. I don't want to lecture you the scope of your own invention, but using this to extend the scope of our own senses we can observe the rise and fall of empires. By using a tool as blunt as space-probe you are taking us backward to the distant past. What next stone axes?"

"My dear friend, I hear you, but I also remind you as evolved as we are, this simple animal possesses enhanced levels of sensitivity that we do not. As a people we are limited by the architecture of our humanity, say the scale of our olfactory organs, the design of eyes, ears, nose and throat, place limits on functionality." His master paused, then with a serious tone added. "Gentlemen I need not remind this council that living things represent a more secure technology than machines. This pup will be able to smell our enemy recognise them where even our own highly evolved senses cannot."

This Kryptonian domestic animal was smart enough to know his master had given him a mission to complete. On Krypton the latent radiation and intense gravity would have held him back, but here in the goldilocks conditions of this fertile world the alien animal could soar, or at least he might if he were fully conscious. Something had attacked both his body and the machines he carried, something the natives had exposed him too, for over twenty five years the inbuilt sensors had recorded nothing. Even now as he hurtled earthward the alien animal struggled to shrug off the after affects of the strange substance, but his master had made sure his animal was not without resources. During it's long journey the Probe's systems had ensured the unique organelles within these engineered cells had been fully exposed to the requisite solar radiation. The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph like a solar battery had stored this energy and been changed by it.

Tumbling towards the North American Continent the stirring waking mind gained some semblance of control, slowing from a glowing red meteor moving many times faster than sound, to a stone falling from the sky. Consciousness brought with it certainty, the time had come to exercise that unique talent that had been bred into his ancestors, the ability to take a pleasing convenient shape. Eventually the alien came down by 10622 Kimberley Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, under the cover of darkness. Bouncing as it hit the dirt, his speed slow enough to leave little trace of his impact. Now the Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph rolled its furry self onwards The pup knew what he must do.

-'8'-

The nuclear explosion hit Diana's extended invisible aegis. Ancient advanced science clashed with ancient god forged magic. It was an irresistible force meeting an unmovable object. As the atomic fire raged above the north polar axis Wonder Woman felt that such heat, light, and noise would reverberate through her god forged shield to the hidden realm of Mount Olympus. There it would shake her patrons long absent from the world. Never had she drawn so heavily from the wealth of power that Olympus granted her.

Outside the magic protective envelope the Kryptonian rode the wave of light and fire as if it were water. His unique physiology was driven by the nuclear reaction of the stars, and this was no less than a baptism of fire for Kal. Superman emerged from the explosion a white hot golden burst of light, like an angry Apollo he hung above the living space craft his eyes red with energy, and yet he held back. Diana understood his dilemma, to destroy the machine within he would have to kill the Manhunter's interstellar mount. She yearned to loose her lasso, the golden lariat would bind to the soul of the flying saucer. As a living being she might coax the living vessel to rebel against the machine mind that drove it to lethal extremes. Yet as the fire raged around her and Jo, she could not expose the Martian to its ravages, even though she was willing to risk her own skin in the furnace.

From the black of space came a flash of green. The arrival of Hal Jordan was recognisable by signature light that encapsulated the green and black clad universal policeman. He was not alone. With him came two other members of the Lantern Corp, also enveloped by Oan verdant energy fields. Their target was the Manhunter and his saucer shaped vessel. Three power rings illuminated the upper atmosphere of Earth, as Hal's energy construct reached out as a giant hand grasping at the disc. Gripping it, restraining it, the saucer lurched in the void. Then with chameleon like wizardry the living space ship suddenly became luminous, glowing yellow it snapped free, careering out of control tumbling towards Diana and Jo. Spitting another volley of fiery atomic weapons.

The Martian Manhunter reacted to the threat using her signature ability. Diana felt the Martians mind connect with hers, touching Superman's, then Hal Jordan and in turn his colleagues. Their names coming into Diana thoughts, as each mind was linked by Jo's newly instituted telepathic intranet. Wonder Woman now recognised the pink skinned and very feminine Katam Tui, blessed as was her race with pixie like features and with her was the very alien insectoid Salaak. His red exoskeleton and six limbs distinguishing from humanoid norms.

Superman his aura somewhat diminished over the course of the intervening seconds, but not yet spent, falls upon the luminescent space craft. A solid series of blows aimed to this armoured hull stunning the main nodes of the cleverly designed nervous system. Just as Jo married her own psychic Martian vision impression of the ships intelligence with Superman's own x-ray like perception. This marriage of information allowing Superman to target the important areas of bioelectrical activity, those corresponding to the ships weapons and propulsion. Lurching the hull became a kaleidoscope of confused colours as the ship bucked away from him, stunned by his fists.

Simultaneously Salaak extended his green light shield around Jo and Diana, permitting the Princess to uncross her wrists, and to launch herself into the void. Her lariat in hand her aim sought out the living vessel. Hal Jordan and Katma Tui came after her, acting like wranglers creating light constructs around the craft. Diana's hunter eye delivers the unbreakable line precisely around the body of the colourful disc. No matter what the god forged lariat would not release the ship. Now Diana felt out to the animal soul within the living vessel, her empathy magnified and concentrated through the golden rope her mind soothing and cajoling the ships mind. In that moment as she poured out the love and compassion of her heart to win its trust. Yet she was also joined telepathically to her adopted sister Jo J'Onzz, a mind of peace and great understanding as well as loneliness and loss, and to the Green Lantern's too, the alien sound of the Salaak's calculating mind was full of strategy and rules, contrasting with Katma Tui full of passion and determination. Then there was Hal Jordan wilful, brave, with a lust for life. Even here in the midst of battle his thoughts betrayed him, he was not immune to Diana or Katma's primal appeal. Yet it was Kal's mind that surprised her, on one level a mass of calculations, logic and structured. Analysing their battle as a three dimensional game of chess, each move extrapolated so he might always field the most danger, and protect his friends. Beside this selfless strategy was also compassion and concern for the living space ship that served the Manhunters. It was an empathy for living things that only someone raised as a son of the soil could possess. As Artemis the Hunter's god-daughter Diana understood natures inherent contradictions, red in tooth and claw, but also gentle and nurturing. The cycle of lige and death, of hunter and hunted.

Superman did not want the living ship harmed in the production of their needed victory. Wonder Woman shared his thoughts, and concentrated her own. She sang her words of wonder to the beast of the deep space, and the ancient stellar animal heard her, and did her bidding, spitting out of itself the machine that had until that moment been its undisputed master.

The Manhunter, hung in space emotionless, the stolen power battery in the androids chest a silent witness to another murder.

Diana could feel through Jo, the revulsion felt by the three Green Lanterns. They understood what this stolen power battery meant. The Guardians Corps prepared to take in the rogue cop killing machine. Then above the blue of Earth, the white of the ice, a inter dimensional portal opened around the Manhunter. Suddenly snatching him from out normal space time.

Diana knew at once a third power had intervened.

The reaction of her colleagues was shock, uncomprehending. Diana alone recognised the tell tale signature of magic, and old powerful god-forged magic at that. It resonated into her soul through the material of the magical gifts of the gods that she wore, the golden lariat of truth resounded with the pulse of ancient power. She saw the pattern, heard the music. The great bull of heaven, the Lamassu had suggested it, now this magical extraction of their enemy had confirmed it. The Manhunters, the supreme mechanical tour de force constructed by Oan civilisation were working hand in hand with supernatural power as removed from their machine nature as east is from west. The conspiracy wasn't just pan-galactic, it must involve the gods themselves.

-'8'-

The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph came embedded with a chip, this was connected to a sensor array which began sweeping the surrounding area. Identifying the humans of this third planet of the yellow dwarf star, which although outwardly resembling the Kryptonian norm, were millions of years less evolved. The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph smelled and tasted the air, the scent of many life forms, by mass principally insects, but he was interested in larger animals. His Master's instructions were to identify the domestic pets of this world. Equipped with logic circuits, the computer he carried finally after decades of waiting ran his Master's program. The mission parameters required successful integration into the existing culture in order to assess the enemies level of infiltration. This meant selecting an animal that could move happily in both the wild and domestic environments. It was just a matter of aggregating the data. The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph did exactly that. Taking advantage of the night the furball rolled forward collecting hairs and other material samples dotted around the suburban landscape, for analysis by the circuits genetic decoder. The breakdown completed, the program then extrapolated a mean composite of the data, delivering this template to the pup triggering it's natural metamorphosis. By dawn something emerged from out of the shadows. It was medium sized white dog of indeterminate breed. The animal bounded out into the street, and sniffed the air. Around his neck he wore a red collar, the Kryptonian computer and sensor array assembly had restructured itself so that it outwardly conformed to the requisite cultural norms. Again appropriately a gold tag hung from the collar in the shape of five sided shield containing what appeared to be a stylised 'S'.


	15. Chapter 15

The barn was old, weathered wood protected by decades of ruddy paint, features picked out in white. The setting sun accented the dark earth tones, painting the Kansas countryside in deepening shades of orange and red. Themyscira's Princess paused looking out at the building framed in the sunset before turning to the farmhouse.

Diana knocked on the Kent's door. Martha opened up to her, and gestured to Wonder Woman to come in.

Diana strode into the open hall way, dressed casually in dark jeans, a leather coat over a close fitted shirt. Clark Kent's mother looked at her with unconcealed maternal concern, coloured with suspicion, perhaps even resentment.

"I'm sorry Clark has been drawn into this." Diana said. She felt for the Kents' predicament.

"It's not your fault." Jonathan Kent rose from his chair, the television was muted, but Diana saw on the screen the dark haired girlfriend of Lex Luthor, one Lois Lane presenting the evening news. "It's who Clark is." The older man continued. "It's just a steep learning curve for all concerned."

"I wanted to speak with him." Diana explained.

"And you came to the house first." Jonathan observed. "That was courteous."

Diana nodded her head making an almost bow, you could take the girl out of a Royal Court of Tri-Millennial Monarch, but you couldn't take the Princess out of the girl, and this home was the Kent's castle, this farm was their Kingdom.

"He's in his Fortress of Solitude." Martha said with a heavy sigh. She indicated outside to the barn. Diana knew that much. She had considered going to him there straight away, but good manners had led her here first to announce herself. Not so long ago the Kent's had suffered a home invasion by government agents. Diana as an officer of DOMA felt she owed them this much at least.

Martha added by way of explanation. "I called the hay loft his Fortress of Solitude when he was a boy." She turned from Diana saying. "When you see him, you can tell him his dinner is still in the oven keeping warm, but I won't keep it there much longer."

Diana entered the barn. It wasn't a place of industry any more, the old style structure was not appropriate to modern agriculture, a new far larger, machinery friendly, steel and concrete building served that purpose. Rather the older building had long ago been demoted to storage. It was to all intents and purposes a large shed. A place for Kent men to tinker, be it with the blue Charger Automobile that Clark prized, or the vintage John Deere Tractor which was in pieces before her. High above was the loft.

It wasn't served by a stairs, this was a barn after all. It hung there demanding a ladder be used. There wasn't one. That wasn't however a problem to her. She leapt and alighted on the suspended second story floor in graceful silence.

Kal turned to face her. The Man of Tomorrow as Herbert S Fine had called him, stood in his alien costume of primary colours. Here in the rural isolation of Kansas Kal was safe from prying eyes. The loft was arranged with old furnishings, a couch and table, a book shelf piled with magazines. Diana saw it for what it was. A den of sorts.

The last time Diana had seen him had been in orbit when the orbiting Fortress bearing his symbol had opened up to him, swallowing him from sight. Leaving her and Jo, along with the Green Lanterns watching in stunned surprise.

"He's here." She told Kal. "In Orbit. Hal Jordan contacted Bruce."

She recalled the Dark Knight's reaction. "A Guardian of the Universe has come from Oa to Earth?"

Bruce had sounded incredulous. "Why would a master from the galactic centre, come to this backwater in the far flung arm of the Galaxy's rim?"

Clark Kent by comparison was not surprised by this development.

Diana saw this as she told him. "A Guardian by the name of Ganthet wishes to meet with the League."

"We should use my orbiting Citadel." Kal said. His tone was decisive, his manner commanding. He stepped across to greet her.

Diana met him halfway. "Really? Remember Kal this Satellite of yours wouldn't let anyone but you enter. The Green Lanterns were alarmed after you vanished inside – more so when this Fortress resisted their power rings. All this coming directly after the Manhunter Android's disappearance, well let's just say Jo and I had to stop the Corps from mounting a more spirited attack on your mysterious satellite."

"Thanks." He replied with a smile and shrug. "Look Diana I didn't expect to be pulled inside either. It was a big surprise for me too." He smiled at her adding. "I can only apologise, I didn't intend to leave you and Jo outside in the cold."

"Well we felt more left in the dark, ignorant of what was going on with you." Diana noted. "That's why I am here." She pointed up through the open loft door to the emergent stars, saying. "Forgive me Kal, but that orbiting fortress may belong to you, but it is an unknown."

Kal smiled in his warm disarming way. "Not as it happens to Ganthet. That much I learned within the Citadel."

"Little is unknown to the Guardians." She observed, adding. "But this Fortress is an unknown to the League, and the League needs answers." Diana was aware she had moved closer to him than etiquette demanded. He did not back away, rather Superman took hold of her arm.

Stepping back from his touch, knowing that he could hold onto to her if he wanted. Kal did not let go, rather she felt his pulse quicken, his heart beating in time with hers.

"I wouldn't withhold anything from you." He said.

She felt her skin flush. It was an unexpected reaction. A less welcome unknown to the Amazon Warrior than the orbiting alien satellite that bore his Kryptonian symbol; the shield Superman wore on his chest, the world imagined it to be an 'S'.

Diana pursed her lips and noted formally. "Even Superman would be excluded from Themyscira, just as Jo and I was from this artefact of your world. I understand limits exist. Limits that cannot be crossed." Her eyes lingered on his hand around her arm. Her meaning clear enough to him. Yet he disregarded her implied rebuke.

"It was a security protocol." Kal replied. "I have made modifications to the satellites programming. It won't exclude you again. The Citadel will recognise my friends so the League can meet Ganthet there."

Diana was about to tell him that she felt that Oliver Queen's remote wilderness ranch would be an appropriate for the meeting with the Guardian, but Kal-El had a surprise for her. His free fingers strayed to his belt, there the yellow buckle responded to his touch, and space time folded around them.

Instantly there was a crackle of static, the subtle smell of ozone, as for the briefest moment she and he passed through the dimensional void between worlds, flickering in and out of normal space and reality, through the Phantom Zone emerging back at different locale entirely. The Kryptonian Secret Citadel that hung in geostationary orbit above the North Pole. Even though displaced in time and space Diana's instincts tracked her position relative to her mother earth, Gaia lay beneath them, above her the bejewelled and black canopy of Astrea, the goddess of justice and the stars whose spirit and power was embodied in Diana.

Her stance altered becoming military – rigid and stern. Superman only now released her arm. He took a step backwards. It was clear to Diana that by holding onto her and triggering the teleportation event, Kal had transported them both from one Fortress of Solitude to another.

Around her was the alien crystalline structure of the orbiting Satellite. They stood in a large balcony jutting out into an open space within the Crystal Citadel. Many levels were exposed around this central vault, like a inside out skyscraper, the space towered both above and below them.

"So is this how it is to be?" She asked. "Are you intending to steal Zatana's thunder?"

"But a slight of hand." Kal responded. "I don't do magic."

"Yes, I realise this was Kryptonian science." Diana acknowledged. Her eyes let him know she had not appreciated his surprising showmanship. Then looking around her she said. "So this is your father's secondary system - this is the 'S' Shield that flew skywards after your spaceship neutralised the Substance-K Bomb." Diana recalled the events at Area 51.

"Yes from that tiny acorn a mighty oak has grown." Superman observed.

"And quickly." She noted.

"Kryptonian technology is able to harness the power of the stars, in this case Sol. This structure grew from crystalline seed engine."

Diana nodded, it was perhaps an unnecessary explanation, she had concluded as much. Kal left her crossing to a glimmering array that was analogous to a control interface. It sparkled like diamonds illuminated by rainbows. He drew from this a shield shaped medallion. No she corrected herself seven wafer thin crystals bearing his mark, opening in his fingers like Zatana might fan a hand of playing cards. Despite his protestations Kal certainly acted like a stage magician.

"Do I pick one?" She asked.

"Absolutely." He replied. "These are markers, take one and it will activate, binding to you and you alone."

"And." She concluded taking one. "This I assume must be a key. One that will allow me to access this satellite." She looked around the sparse white opaque glass like structure, and back to the crystal key cards Superman held.

"Yes, activating the key will engage the transporter."

"Bruce and Oliver will be excited by the prospect of instantaneous travel." Diana said.

"I can entrust you to deliver them?" Superman asked.

"Yes, providing this Satellite can teleport a person to any given location." Diana replied.

Superman nodded. "Sure. Anywhere on planet Earth."

Diana of course grasped the strategic advantage of this technology to the League. She relented and softened her stance. Superman might have overstepped the mark with this surprise, but she could not deny its value. "I'll pass them around." She said. "But I'm still not certain about holding our meeting with the Guardian in this Citadel."

"Thank you." He said. "But the thing is Diana, Ganthet has already contacted me. The meeting here was his idea – his request."

Diana frowned. It was clear there was something Kal hadn't told to her. Something connecting him to the Guardians.

"I think it's best if I allow Ganthet to explain the circumstances Earth finds itself in." Kal added. It was clear he had read her questioning expression.

She looked at the man who had grown up in Kansas, now dressed in Alien regalia, master of an Alien Fortress poised above his adopted world. Her Earth. "Very well Kal. That does change matters, since it is the Guardians request, I will inform the League and give out your keys."

Wonder Woman took her crystal shield from her belt. "So how does this work?" She asked.

"Where do you wish to go?"

"The Kansas facility to begin with." Diana replied. Superman's hand interrupted the kaleidoscope of lights from the crystal array by his side.

Diana turned to him and said. "By the way your mom says your dinner is in the oven."

And in an instant she was gone.

-8-

Diana did as she promised. She both handed out the keys, and informed the League. Superman brought them all to the orbiting Secret Citadel.

Dinah Lance looked around the vast hidden satellite. She wore her Black Canary costume of stockings, short-shorts and corseted top with a leather jacket. They all had dressed in the new colourful style of the moment. Jo had assured them anything less would be improper – they were to meet a Guardian of the Universe after all.

The Flash stood in his red jump suit, with lightening flash detailing. Barry was quietly staring at the image of the world beneath them. Arthur, called King Orin of Posideonis and Aquaman, wore his golden mail and green leggings. He stood beside Barry reflecting on the white and blue pearl that was home. Jo stood with Kal. Together they discussed the means by which the station could be outfitted to better accommodate the League. The Black Canary interrupted their talk of touch screen interfaces. "This place is very sterile – very cold. It needs a woman's touch Clark. I feel like I'm inside some giant refrigerator."

Superman laughed. "I guess I could bring in some knick-knacks from around the globe, make the place look more homely, I mean the last place I'd want to be was inside an _empty_ fridge."

Observing this discussion was the Green Arrow, looking like to all intents and purposes a modern day Robin Hood in Lincoln green. Alone stood the Dark Knight. Batman wore the black and grey of his own urban camouflage. Both industrialists did their best to hide their feelings, but Diana's empathic instinct for the truth cut to the heart of the matter. Behind Oliver Queen's sardonic wit, and Bruce Wayne's veil of detached disinterest lay the burning curiosity of a small boy presented with a new toy.

"This satellite offers up new possibilities." Ollie said with a wry smile. He held up his crystal 'S' Shield shaped Key. "You say this doodad can transport me into any bedroom anywhere in the world?" He asked looking across at Dinah Lance.

The Black Canary screwed her eyes back at him. "You are cad and a heel Oliver Queen." She said.

Kal shook his head. "There are limitations." He stated. "Teleportation requires large amounts of energy, and if over used it will drain the Citadel - at least until it can recharge. On that basis I would strongly suggest we all agree to use this capability for League business only."

Oliver pulled a face of mock distress, before nodding in agreement.

"How does it work?" The Batman asked directly.

Superman frowned. "Basically this is my father's legacy, and it comes with conditions."

"Not to share inappropriate advanced technology with a developing culture." Jo J'Onzz interjected. "That is an universal principle long established." She continued looking at the two captains of industry, she said. "It is entirely appropriate for those of us with access to advanced science to approve the release of intermediate technological advances through your companies, but I know you gentlemen – and as anxious as you are to see the greater good served by science you are equally aware that technology is more often than not forged in to swords first, and ploughshares second."

"Harnessing the Atom is the most dramatic example of that." Diana noted.

Jo nodded. "I did not come from a world ravaged by war to see another oasis of life reduced to a barren desert by conflict."

"Truly honourable sentiments Martian Manhunter." The voice echoed around them as the blue skinned alien teleported into the heart of the chamber. Surrounded by Emerald light the Guardian from Oa descended to the platform where the league was assembled. Short in stature, his white hair tied back into a pony tail Ganthet had brought with him Hal Jordon.

"Greetings Justice League of Earth. I am grateful that you have agreed to meet with me."

"We are honoured by your presence." Diana replied with a regal bow towards the Guardian.

"And I you – every one of you." Ganthet nodded to her, and the League. He then looked towards Superman. "I never imagined I would see Kryptonian Technology again. It is a honour to meet the son of Jor-El."

"I am heir to the House of El and Krypton's Last Son." Kal replied with a formal bow.

It was Arthur, King Orin of Posideonis who came to the point bluntly.

"Guardian. Why is it you are here? What is so special about Earth and Kryptonian technology? What business does Oa and the Green Lantern Corps have with the Manhunters, why are these androids here on Earth?"

"King of Atlantis." The Guardian began. "Logically you think this world is but one of many in the Universe? You wonder why a lone planet in the least populated corner of the galaxy should be so important?"

"Yes." Aquaman stated.

Ganthet turned to the portal that showed the sphere of the Earth. "This world is where life as we know it began, that is all humanoid life in the galaxy originated here on this third rock from that unremarkable yellow dwarf star, in this backwater of space."

Hal Jordan's face revealed much, surprise registered in his features. The Guardian's words were as much a shock to him as each one of them. "That's impossible." The Green Lantern said to his superior. "The Guardian's came from Malthus, you were the first sentient life form, you colonised Oa when this Galaxy was still young, and that was billions of years ago. Earth was but a ball of hot gas."

"In my history, Earth, several centuries hence became known as Terra, and then millennia later Malthus. We – your Guardians, are descended from future humans. These Malthusians travelled back through time, from what was the far future to witness the beginning of the universe. These explorers, our ancestors, became stranded in their distant past. They were forced to settle and evolve in those tumultuous aeons that was the beginning of our Galaxy."

"Then you're saying, you're what humanity will become?" Oliver Queen asked. His eyes taking in the strange appearance of the dwarf like blue skinned white haired alien.

"The Guardian's represent a possible future. The Kryptonian here yet another. Fate has made my ancestors part of your distant past. That cannot change. Whether the future will unfold as it once did, is something time only time will tell."

"Yet you unleashed the Manhunters on the universe." Jo stated. For once her soft features appeared distorted by anger.

"Modelled upon your race Martian, or at least our legendary histories of your world's noble Manhunters." Ganthet replied. Adding. "Even before your species evolved in this time line, the Martian legacy brought peace and security to the Universe."

"That knowledge brings me little comfort." Jo replied. "Because those Androids which you now say were modelled after the Martians, eventually rebelled and then went on to destroy countless civilisations in the belief that life itself was at fault, sentience was the cause of evil. I am condemned to spend my life redeeming the name of Manhunter from these machines legacy."

Ganthet nodded. "It was a mistake to entrust these Androids with both the knowledge of good and evil and to all intents and purposes eternal life." He looked at Jo with great sadness in his wide eyes. "It is perhaps little comfort that before this great war, that for thousands of years the Manhunters ensured humanoid life lived in peace and security."

"Then what happened?" The Flash asked. "Why Earth here and now?"

"Almost a thousand years ago the Manhunters discovered this world. We had long protected Earth – by prohibiting contact with this sector, erasing the existence of this the cradle of humanity from the Manhunters memories, should they happen upon even a whisper of Earth's existence. However once they had rebelled we lost contact with the remnant that survived the war. Some of these machines came to Earth they discovered the true origins of humanoid life in the universe. That alone was enough to pique their interest."

"What of this fascination with Kryptonian technology?" The Batman asked, he looked over to the stoic Man of Steel in his red and blue, bright against the stark white of the Citadel.

Ganthet shrugged. "Isn't it obvious Dark Knight? The Manhunters were defeated, cut off from the central battery of Oa, all but destroyed the remnant were stripped of any remarkable power as a result."

"We saw how the Manhunter who attacked us used a stolen Lantern." Diana said.

"That is true, but as soon as we establish a battery has been stolen we make every attempt to retrieve it, and failing that see it destroyed." Ganthet told the Princesss. "Yet stolen batteries are only a means to an end, and in themselves they are not sufficient to meet the Manhunters' ambitions, for they no longer wish to owe Oa anything at all."

Batman grasped the Guardians meaning. "They seek an alternative power source – and Kryptonian technology is able to leverage solar radiation to incredible levels."

Superman nodded. "That is the bottom line Bruce, they see my ability to process sunlight into super powers as a means to revive their fallen armies, to rule over all once again."

"That would mean an end to life as we know it." Jo gasped. "At the end of the last war those races, if they survived at all, were almost all decimated back to primitiveness. The once vibrant universe fell silent."

"It was the terrible loss of life unleashed by the Manhunters, that caused us to call upon Kal's people. They came to our aid." Ganthet stated.

Superman looked at his comrades. "This is why my people resolved to remain on Krypton, and so give up their powers in that worlds unique harsh environment. It was their part in galactic history's most cruel war. With the Guardian's as allies they ensured the destruction of the Manhunters armies, they ended the Androids genocidal war, by destroying every Manhunter that could be found."

"I can see how that might work." The Flash noted. "One Kryptonian is like the Star Ship Enterprise in the body of man, complete with laser beams. A whole army of Supermen, that would be..."

"Like the wrath of a million gods." Diana said.

"Some Manhunters however got away." Hal Jordan noted.

Kal folded his arms. "At great cost my people fought and were forced to kill, they had to meet both Manhunter machines and the living beings that served them, both spaceships and mercenary races. It was a war so terrible that as a people they resolved that isolationism was necessary."

"Because absolute power corrupts absolutely." Bruce Wayne observed.

Superman nodded. "That was the danger they anticipated – so they chose a simpler more human existence."

"And afterwards the Guardian's instituted the Green Lantern Corps," Hal Jordan concluded, "trusting in living individual sentient beings rather than a collective of semi-autonomous machines."

Ganthet nodded. "Now Justice League of Earth, you perhaps understand why this backwater planet is truly the centre of the Universe."


	16. Chapter 16

"This is so unnecessary." Lois Lane said, in her hands she held the necklace of gold, it dripped in emeralds. At the centre hung a green stone of indecent proportions, and she marvelled how the stone caught the candle light, reflecting a fiery green glow.

It was haunting.

Lex Luthor smiled, his brow wrinkled as his eye brows raised, his piercing ice blue grey eyes drank her in. He stepped behind, so that over her shoulder his square jaw, round gleaming hairless head loomed above her in the full length mirror. Reaching down and around her Lex brushed the fabric of her deep purple dress. He had picked this gown, saying how it matched the violet of her eyes, Luthor Corp had paid the haute couture price – an oh so exclusive designer label, and then the obligatory matching Jimmy Choos. Lois watched as his manicured fingers deftly lifted the necklace from her hands. Cool metal glided across the skin of breasts, rising to her throat. She bent forward, her hands lifting her brunette locks from her neck to let him fix the weighty golden chain. The clasp clicked shut. Lex ran his fingers through her hair as she raised her chin.

Lois shivered, the metal was cold, she told herself.

The Metropolis Penthouse Apartment was maintained at a perfect temperature, decorated expensively.

"Gold, Purple and Green." Lex said. "And you. I can't think of better combination."

Lois touched the fiery green pendant stone. "It's beautiful Lex." She said. "You really shouldn't spoil a girl so, I just might get used to it."

Luthor laughed. The mirror reflected his eyes – his soul, Lois observed this captain of Industry and Politics whose towering intellect had so captivated her. Successful, admired, rich and powerful. Yet for a moment she saw something else in the way he looked at her. She gasped – passion lit up his eyes, it was like seeing ice on fire, impossible and terrifying, yet beautiful.

Lois was used to lust, Lex always rose to the occasion, his look, his strong touch, his velvet smooth words. That was the man she admired, feared. The man who had charmed her, pursued and wooed her. A man not so different to her father. One who ran his business interests like a military operation. A man used to giving orders, and having them obeyed.

From where had arisen this new found look of love?

Now her reporters wonder was ignited, and the wind of change fanned the flames of her curiosity, she had to know where this was leading.

Her eyes glanced at the gold Rolex on her left wrist. A diamond studded bracelet on her right.

She recalled the legend of the Amazons enslavement by Heracles. Were these gifts – or another form of manacles, chains of obligation – just how much was she prepared to be indebted to this sugar daddy?

His patronage opened doors to her. Despite the abundance of pretty faces – or perhaps because of it, she had never been adverse to using her feminine wiles to wheedle out a story, to advance her career, through bitch pool. But even now in the twenty first century America there was still a glass ceiling – men still commanded the top jobs and salaries. Lois asked herself, has my hunger for the ideal dispatch, the banner headline and Pulitzer winning prose taken me places a good girl shouldn't go?

Lex's fingers drifted from her neck to the cleavage exposed by the daringly low cut gown, they lingered caressing the green stone that hung pendulous between her breasts. His hand cradled the gem.

At the same time Lois felt the more alarming touch of realisation. Clarity cut through Champagnes bubbles fizzing merry – a happy distraction blown away. Now Lois saw the truth. Yes Lex's eyes sparkled tonight with love and passion, but not for her, no she thought – her boyfriend was enraptured by the green stone she wore.

She almost asked how much did this cost, but Lois resolved to find this out in a less obvious way.

Lex smiled saying. "I'm sorry Darling, I had hoped to make my gift the centre piece of a memorable night, instead I must offer it as a token apology."

"What?" Lois blurted.

"I have something... important I must attend to."

"Lex." Lois said with all the hard edge tone of a rebuke.

He shrugged, flashed a boyish grin of apology. "The markets never sleep darling. You know that."

Lois shook her head tired of this merry-go-round. "I know." She said. Turning she kissed him on the lips. Her left hand brushed his chin. "Thank you for the necklace." Lois then slapped Lex with her right. "That's for dinner."

His left cheek was spanked red, but all Luthor did was laugh as he turned and walked away.

Lois Lane awoke to the dawn. The sun streamed in through the windows of Lex Luthor's Penthouse. Her head ached. Looking across at the empty Champagne bottles she became angry with herself. Lane dammit. She thought. Why the hell did you drink yourself into stupor.

It didn't make a whole lot of sense, she didn't remember any of it, and that wasn't her style. Sure dancing on tables and shouting whoopadoo at the top her voice, that and bad Karaoke, followed by a cigarette even though she'd quit years ago. That was her style. Then in the morning Lois would remember it all in awful embarrassing detail.

But no. Last night was a blur. Then as she dragged herself of Lex's couch she fell back into a seated position head in her hands. She still wore the necklace Luthor had given her. The dress was crumpled.

"Lane get your ass moving." She growled. It was a passable impersonation of her dad. Stumbling on her Jimmy Choos she made a break for the bathroom.

Lois felt human after that. Toothpaste had banished things already forgotten with its minty eraser. Grabbing her leather jacket Lois made her walk of shame and grabbed a taxi home.

It had to be today of all days. She shouldn't have gone over to Lex's with the event scheduled for later this morning.

Home in her apartment Lois picked up the Daily Planet from among her mail. The early edition led with a big headline. "Terror strikes home at Luthor Corp Metropolis."

The dark black coffee was welcome, dark and bitter, refreshing. She felt a pang of guilt as she read the prose, she recognised the voice behind the words. Perry White, the pictures were Jimmy Olson.

Even as she stripped for the shower she was on the phone. "Garcia I need everything we've got on last nights raid.

"And before you bite me, yes I know I wasn't available. I need to review any footage – facts, before..."

"The interview." The man on the other end of the phone said. "Already on it. You should have been here. I'm sending a file to your smart phone.""

"I'm coming." Lois snapped. Before stepping under the hard hot sharp jets.

-'S'-

"You failed." The Man-Hunter stated with mechanical accuracy. He stood at the conference table. A secret room within a hidden temple of the Illumati, concealed in an imposing but otherwise unremarkable metropolis brownstone building.

"I sacrificed a valuable asset." Luthor stated. He and Vandal Savage sat. "And I Incurred great cost. Lost operatives." It was gamesmanship, a machine did not feel the passage of time. Lex wondered how Savage felt, the long lived man lounged at apparent ease, in an obvious display of dominance.

Lex continued. "I remind you – that my people succeed in as much they brought the artefact from Roswell to your predetermined location. One of you even collected it."

"Not without incident." The android observed.

Luthor noted the android did not acknowledge what happened next. The Man-Hunters had lost the cannister.

Lex shrugged. "I did my part." He shook his head and sighed. His body complained. There was little chance of the Machine apologising, and he sure wasn't going to show any weakness, as fatigued as he was. They had been here all night, watching the events unfold. Now it was morning, and dawn light brought recriminations – on all sides. However the failure was shared, regardless of where the most blame might lie. The Justice League had deprived the Man-Hunter of his prize.

"Your Coffee."

"Thank you _Ms_. _Teschmacher." Lex said. The attractive blond woman placed a coffee cup and saucer on the table. It's welcome aroma banished the clinical smell of ozone that permeated the room. Evidence of the other conspirator._

_His aide retreated into the shadows._

_"There's nothing like coffee that's been shit through the ass of a common palm civet." Laughed the black bearded Vandal Savage._

_Luthor smiled, before sipping the brew, and replacing the small cup onto it's appropriately delicate saucer. Already he felt better – emboldened. More than caffeine ran through his system, he justified self medication easily when faced with immortals._

_Lex considered this alliance. Thinking, needs must and devil may ride. He considered the compact he had made._

_The Man-Hunters promised him knowledge – appropriate and adaptable technology, devices which current human science could understand and replicate. That Luthor Corp could patent. _

_Then there was Vandal Savage. Luthor thought of him as inhuman, his longevity precluded Luthor from including him in humanity, but at least Vandal Savage been born on Planet Earth, albeit in the stone age._

_Luthor was a realist. The Illuminati – the organisation Savage had built over the millennia of human civilisation had real power in secret, but theirs was a local authority. A big fish in a small pond. The Man-Hunters represented a far more ancient power still with galactic reach – more importantly he understood their cold logic, and appreciated the machines willingness to deal._

_Lastly there was the unseen, and the forgotten power. Unlike the machines this was native to earth, but Lex reflected could a god – even a fallen one, ever be considered a small fish?_

_From the darkness the shadow flickered taking on occasional solidity._

_Luthor felt the coldness emanating from the spinning almost imperceptible vortex in the fabric of reality. Whatever power limited this olden god, it did not curtail his ambitions. They were stellar._

_"It seems our ambitions come together in this. We must defeat and capture the Man of Tomorrow, __and the Woman of Myth." The voice from the shadows concluded. _

_"With them the League will fall. Power will shift back to where it rightfully belongs." Vandal Savage stated. His dark eyes turning to acknowledge Luthor, to include him._

_The android agreed. "With the Kryptonian dissected the Man-Hunters will be able to tap into the secret of his leveraged solar energy processing and storage for the manipulation of mass."_

_"And with the goddesses Champion of Olympus I shall have my key to the heavens of old again." The old god rumbled. Suddenly the room shook, and sparks crackled around his shadowy form like lightning. "I will take back my throne – I will find substance and power again, and I shall wreck my vengeance on my sons, upon Posideon, upon Hades, and last of all – the youngest of my children, the one who became King instead of me among the gods. I will slay and depose Zeus._

_"Then I Cronus, will reign over a new golden age over the heavens and the earth."_

_"We will defeat the Oans." The Man-Hunter android stated without emotion._

_"And the Earth will belong to men again." Vandal Savage banged the table between them._

_Lex smiled._

_-'S'-_

_Lois Lane looked across the Metropolis bay and checked her button mike for the final time. She heard the call."Three." then silently the WGBS sound man counted down two and one with his fingers; and the live transmission light on her cameraman's steady-cam mounted camcorder flickered from red to green._

_"This is Lois Lane live for WGBS lunchtime news. A Special report coming to you from the Bay overlooking Stryker Island. We had hoped to bring you a statement from the Justice League, however..."_

_Lois paused, her sound guy had almost dropped the mike boom, as a gust of wind had tussled her chocolate locks, she was certain the furry clad microphone had fallen into shot. It took all of her self control to contain a scowl, and hold onto the sugar sweet smile. The cameraman pointed behind her. _

_"Miss Lane." The rich baritone voice assailed her. She swallowed deeply, and turned on her stilettos __to face the Man of Steel, and America's Angel. Lois looked up to both. It wasn't the fact they had descended from the sky behind her in a heartbeat, although they had, Wonder Woman was six feet tall, and he was taller still._

_"We would like to make a statement." Wonder Woman began. "We know who was responsible for the attack on Metropolis – we also know who you were working for."_

_Superman added. "And we're coming for you."_

_Lois gasped her moment was over. As quick as they had come, these heroes were gone again. As the two figures took flight, she shouted out to them, but even as the question left her lips. They were gone. "Who?"_

_Lois scowled. Rather than answering any questions the Leagues Statement had created so many more. Lane knew she and WGBS had been used to send a message to someone. This was the real story, and as Lex Luthor's girlfriend she already had her foot in the door._

_-'S'-_

_Moments later Superman and Wonder Woman broke the sound barrier, and in a short measure achieved escape velocity. He joined her within the invisible aura of Hermes's magical Chariot. Then for another longer moment they hung together above the blue gem that was the Earth. Hands almost touching. His eyes flickered from sphere below and as the world turned, then to her, their gaze meeting in the cold silence of space._

_Diana saw him smile in the way he had greeted her in Jerome's months before, his eye crinkled almost to a wink, as one half of his mouth smiled, then broad and warm, the same smile broke out across his open honest face. A heart beat later she took his hand and together they dived to Earth._

_Kansas. Smallville. Several miles outside town, along a dusty access road, lay the Kent Farm. Remote, isolated._

_Invisible, undetectable, the gift of Hermes carried Diana and Kal to the isolated farmstead, taking on the internal dimensions of a sleek fighter jet, the notionally winged sandals morphing into a culturally appropriate shape, enveloping Wonder Woman and Superman, before coming to rest __silently like a hawk alighting the ground beside the old Kent house._

_Even though the military and others had no doubt tried to track their course from Metropolis and up and away, Diana was confident in the invisible planes ultimate stealth._

_"Do you have a moment." Kal asked her as he alighted to the ground._

_Diana had. She expected it, wanted to be here. Emerging from the invisible envelope, her lariat passed around her, and Hestia's armour was dispensed with. She stood dressed in jeans, boots, and a t shirt. Wind from the plain animated her long dark hair. Mean while he sped faster than the human eye could see to the house. She followed._

_Inside the kitchen the Kent home was as charming as she remembered it._

_"Your parents aren't here." Diana noted. Her hunters eye had determined this before she had landed._

_"No." Clark Kent said as he donned his glasses. Fixing his plaid shirt. "They're back at the General Store in town."_

_Diana absorbed this piece of information and it's implications._

_"You've taken the farm back?" Diana noted._

_He nodded. "It's something to do when I'm thinking. My hands remember hard work, even if I don't break a sweat these days."_

_She noted he rubbed the palm of his hand, touching where their had once been a scar, once there had been a shard of Kryptonite._

_Clark looked across the yard to the fields. "I can do a weeks worth of chores in a few minutes." He looked back at her. "And this is middle-of-no-where-ville. I can come and go unobserved."_

_"What of seed time and harvest?"_

_"I can hire contract labour and machines for the busy times, to keep up appearances. Pa can help oversee if I have to go somewhere else."_

_She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as much as to say you probably will. He understood her doubtful expression and laughed._

_"I thought you might stay in Metropolis." Diana said as Clark made some coffee for them both. He __brought the water instantly to the boil with heat and light tumbling from his eyes._

_"I've been practising." He said by way of explanation. He held the bubbling percolator in his hand._

_She thought it made sense, every day tasks, repeated, honed the reflexes, helped him adjust to his new power set._

_As the coffee bubbled he said. "You didn't expect me to stay on at Jerome's – did you?" Clark asked his eyes flashed incredulous._

_"No – but perhaps closer to events." Diana said. She felt her heart skip a beat. Ever truthful she second guessed her answer, had she really meant closer to her?_

_"I did think about that. Getting a place like yours."_

_His eyes met hers. A lingering glance. It was telling. Diana felt the heart of Aphrodite beating in her chest. She could not deny her god-mother._

_"But you came home." Diana said. She deliberately turned away, looking at where pictures of Clark's late wife hung on the wall, her vibrant red hair, and happy smile spoke volumes. She had loved this man._

_He was no fool, Diana knew that, here with so little to divert his attention, his super senses were almost entirely focused on her. Her heart betrayed her._

_"There are good memories here. Many more than bad."_

_"I miss my home. My Mother and my sisters." Diana told him as she took the mug of coffee from his hand, if she had meant to conceal her thoughts her fingers betrayed her, as they brushed against his. His smile spoke to her soul again. He then added cream and sugar with abandon._

_"It must be hard." Clark acknowledged. "Being away from your family." Adding. "And it must very different, here in America, and in Metropolis. Metropolis was different enough for me."_

_"It is. I hope to see the day, and soon, when Themyscira might be recognised by the United Nations._

_"Perhaps even a permanent home, a slice of Themyscira here in America, an Embassy."_

_She did not say so, but there were ways – magical ways, of making the lost realm of Themyscira closer to hand. A permanent place – a location which was too all intents and purpose Amazon Soil __would make such a bridge between worlds possible._

_Clark was nodding. There was empathy and understanding evident in his eyes, but Diana sensed there was something weighing on his mind. It had been since Metropolis. He came to the point._

_"Lois Lane was irradiated with substance K. Low level, but enough for me to sense its lingering presence. She must have been exposed very recently – given it's very short half life."_

_"Luthor." Diana said. She put her coffee down. "He of all people should be aware of the protocols regarding meteor rock. He wrote them."_

_Clark set his jaw, it was anger. "Meteor Rock County prepared me for the heavy handedness of Government, but even so I still find it hard to understand how Luthor could play the role of a zealot, and then betray the very cause he espoused. A turn coat. A traitor to the country he swore to protect._

_Diana sighed. The reality of life within the Department of Meta-Human Affairs was complicated. Almost she reflected like being a Japanese American in service during World War II. The attitude to Metahumans had been coloured by the dangerous and criminal elements. She continued. "That Luthor has Substance K close to him, close enough to expose his girlfriend, this only goes to confirm what Jo was told by the mercenary hired to kill you."_

_Clark folded his arms. "It stands to reason. Luthor Corp has its connections to government. It had access to Meteor Rocks from the beginning. If any one would have explored weaponising Substance K, it would be them._

_She sighed as she remembered how Superman had stood supporting the collapsing Luthor Corp building even as Kryptonite bullets had ripped into him._

_"Bruce found evidence that Luthor has been laundering money."_

_Clar's face narrowed, she guessed he was considering the likely scenarios. "Drugs – organised crime?" He asked._

_"Yes." Diana said. It was both. The connections ran deep. She should have been angry at the Batman for his underhand industrial espionage program, but she could not deny his detective work had born fruit._

_"But?" Clark interrupted her thoughts._

_"It's the who that is behind the drug and human trafficking, and countless other questionable activities." She said. "It's the League of Assassins." She told him. "The Hashishin."_

_Clark nodded. "They were involved with raid on Area 51. So what is their link to Illuminati – and in turn to Luthor?"_

_"You're familiar with the concept of the Tree of Life?"_

_Clark smiled. "I was for a time a Sunday Scholar. From Genesis."_

_"In truth the myth exists across many cultures and traditions. For my people it is a fact of life, that in realm of Hesperides there is garden where grows the golden apples of immortality."_

_He nodded, she continued saying._

_"Like Gilgamesh in the ancient Sumerian Saga heroes of old, men of renown have sought eternal life, or at least a means to extend their days indefinitely. In the eyes of the gods – the immortals, men seek to steal it, much like Prometheus stole fire. For Olympus it is a gift not a right, and something that is given only to those chosen – found worthy."_

_Clark seized on the implied conclusion. "Then that is the purpose of the Illuminati – to steal the secrets of eternal life?"_

_"It is the ultimate prize which they promise, and the Illuminati have among their leaders men who claim it. At least that is history the Amazons have knowledge of. Shadowy figures with the same features who stand behind whispering into the ears of some the worlds most powerful leaders throughout history."_

_Clark's face became stern. "I see, so the price for inclusion in this club, for a bite of these golden apples, is what - betrayal?"_

_Diana could see he was weighing the temptation that such a reward might hold._

_"Yes." She said. "And our annals tell us many leaders of men, heroes, men of renown, and infamy, for conquest has always been a murderous business in Patriarch's World, gave up their empires for a taste of that forbidden fruit, and forswore allegiance to the Illuminati."_


	17. Chapter 17

Metropolis. Was Diana right? Should Clark spend more time in the urban centre of the new world?

Superman flew over the Golden Apricot, he had the height and speed to remain effectively invisible, whilst his vision powers could zero into microscopic levels of detail. A little altitude, and a dose of attitude, Kansas was always but heartbeat away.

Maybe home should be more than coming and going unseen.

Superman kicked back and hit escape velocity. Gotham was a darker place, older and narrower. Wayne Manor was among the earliest of its grand buildings. Acres of countryside had once separated this trend setting Gothic pile from the streets of the city, urban growth had seen that change, now the Wayne Estate was an island of manicured lawns and rolling gardens amongst the encroaching suburbia. Superman's eyes digested the Wayne Industries Tower. New angular – stark and modern, like a stake driven into the corpse of old Gotham. Bruce has more than one home Superman reflected. Eyes telescoped to the orbiting citadel, where Jo J'onzz worked even now hybridizing the primitive technology of Earth with what she remembered of her own worlds advanced science, and again with that of the satellite – of his world of origin. It was a talent the shape shifter possessed, she was adept at blending these technologies as she was her own appearance.

And yes – he reflected, this satellite was a home of sorts too, but Diana had meant something else, hadn't she?

Superman stood on the loft of his barn on the farm. A fortress of Solitude, his mother had teased him with that name. Perhaps he reflected if I had grown up a hero alone, the first of my kind, I would have sort solitude – know only solitude, but I didn't. I was human for a quarter century, at least in all ways but one. I was a husband, I had a wife.

Now I'm a hero because Diana reached out to me. Just as she reached out to each member of the League. He tapped his belt buckle activating the electronics in his suit. Much like a smart phone, this Kryptonian device allowed him to collate and store information, communicate, and do a passable impersonation of Captain Kirk beaming up to the Secret Citadel's Watch Tower. Yes there was an app for that.

Today the cell engaged the three dimensional hologram interface, immersing Superman within the crystal rainbow controls. The internet was open to him. His arms folded and he stood still as his eyes did the surfing. A second feed ran collating news, it ran continuously in the background, always.

The Helicopter, an ubiquitous Bell 206C series Jet Ranger. The distinctive profile had featured in countless television shows and movies. The WBGS copter was a stalwart of the News Channel's on the scene reports, was getting a little long in the tooth, had Lois had the benefit of something like x-ray sight coupled with microscopic vision she might have seen the metal fatigue in the main rotor's prop assembly. As it happened she was perhaps understandably more concerned with her up and coming report. Taking off from the Galaxy Broadcasting building Lois adjusted her hair and make up. The Gala presentation at the Luthor Corp's Principle Offices on Troy Island Metropolis, was all about Lex. The headline ran Charity, the sub text was positioning the brand, the reality was the man. The reporter knew this annual shindig was, this year, also about countering some of the negative gossip following the Meta-Terrorist attack on Luthor Corp research facility on the bay.

It troubled her more than she liked that aspersions had been cast in the Metropolis Man's honour.

She shifted uncomfortable in her seat. No she corrected her inner narrative. It was surely this tight fitting dress. In her deepest private thoughts Lois wondered if she was at ease in her own skin. The gold and emerald necklace Lex had given her weighed heavy around her neck, it was cold against her chest, hidden beneath her aged leather bomber-style jacket, she wore that dress again tonight. Purple and green, Lex's favourite colours, for his favourite girlfriend.

Strictly Black Tie.

Strictly invitation only. What could a girl do?

Favourite good causes and favourite location. The hanging gardens. Green space planted atop of the Luthor Corp towers, this chunk of Metropolis bought wholesale and redesigned. The locals called it 'Luthor Town' rather than the signed Lionel Luthor Memorial Parkway Development and Business Complex. Here Luthor's father had perished in a fire that had consumed the sprawling tenements. A failing legacy of high rise urban utopic dreams. Executed in stark cold and depressing concrete.

Replaced by towering cathedrals of steel and glass.

The Helicopter swung around so Lois's Cameraman Terry Voigt could catch the leading shot before sundown. The sun painted the sky golden as it sank towards the west.

"Assembled for a garden party amongst the clouds comes the great and the good of Metropolis, along with chosen representatives of Luthor Corp employees, from the factory floor to upper management.

"Here we can see the urban greening project begun by tonight's sponsor, starting right here in Troy State, with the companies holdings including, and adjacent to, Lex Towers.

"As our pilot descends we can see the lavish display on this day when Lex Luthor gives away seven figure sums to leading Charities, and impressive bonuses to his own employees. Most generous of all is perhaps Luthor Corps annual outstanding individual awards to people who have distinguished themselves in their day to day lives. Policeman, Fire fighters, the Medical profession and ordinary members public, young and old. Like last years recipient, Tommy Garcia, who at four years old managed to alert the emergency services to his mothers sudden onset of a diabetic coma."

Lois paused as the Helicopter slowed and hovered, beginning it's descent.

Across from her she could see other eyes-in-the-sky. She swallowed, it was no secret she was stepping out with Lex. No secret this relationship gave her special privileges, and an access all areas pass to tonight's festivities.

Sometime she wondered whether she'd feel better about all this if Lex could somehow help her surreptitiously, fed her stories on the QT, on the down-low, without even her tacit knowledge. She wasn't sure that would be morally better, but at least she wouldn't know. But that wasn't Lex. That wasn't the man whom she had been first attracted. All primary coloured neck ties, with the power to change the course of great industries. Lex never did anything without making a noise about it. Lois checked her gold Rolex, she was running late. What's new Lois reflected? The Helicopter hovered feet above the H on the pad. Lois hit her safety belt release.

The explosion tore a competitors chopper from the air, suddenly it was raining fire and debris.

"Get that!" Lois bellowed to the Pilot, to her Camera operator.

The Bell Ranger groaned as the jockey yanked her stick, and she tipped over and around so the camera angle was good. Lois was out of her seat, unrestrained, literally and in excitement. This was news.

Inexplicably debris exploded again in mid-air as it fell from the smoky cloud.

Lois saw the flying man. Red and blue he came towards her. Expressionless. No! She corrected herself. "I can see flying men!" She stated into her microphone over simulcast. "They are attacking the party goers."

The camera jerked. Across a multitude of television sets across the country the image jerked, and then focused.

The red and blue figures were shifting and changing shape on the fly, their limbs altered to form weapons of various kinds, all seemed to be pulled from the pages of some pulp SF magazine, or cheap internet fiction. Hot plasma, lasers, projectiles. Explosions from the gardens atop the skyscraper. Screams and shouts as the panicked men in dinner suits, the women in evening dresses ran from the murderous attack.

"An Alien incursion, hostile machines attacking Luthor Corp." Lois shouted breathless into the microphone.

One of the Machine Men rocketed past Lois, rocking the old helicopter with it's backwash, the pilot fought the stick and collective lever, had the old girl been younger she'd have ridden out the turbulence of the glass shattering sonic boom created by the passing robot, but rather the prop shaft to the main rotor gave way. Close to Lex Towers, the up draft from the sky scraper buffeted the already destabilised helicopter. The next moment Lois was falling, hard against the side window, a laptop followed crashing into the handle, and the door popped open, Lois dangled for a moment in the cold air, wind whistled around her legs, blowing up her dress, she suddenly felt glad she was dressed to the nines, that she was wearing her best underwear. Crazy she thought, her hand grasped around the seat belt, the things you think of when you're going to die. Then her fingers betrayed her and she slipped.

Above the sudden change in weight unbalanced the Helicopter causing it to pitch again, this time into the building, the prop blades smashed into the glass and steel, and the auto-rotation stopped. The Bell Ranger bounced against the windows, and fell like a stone amidst a rain of glass shards. Lois lay looking up at the tumbling chopper.

Then she felt a strong but gentle embrace. She hadn't time to think, as blue arm and bronzed hand grasped the landing ski of the WGBS copter and arrested it's fall. Glass shards fizzed bright like stars around them.

Time stood still – or at least it seemed to. She felt light headed. Then Lois understood she and hundreds of pounds of helicopter were really stood still, hovering in the air above Metropolis.

The smiling mouth directly above said. "Don't worry I've got this." Then his face shifted into a grimace. "Substance K Miss Lane?" He growled. Struggling it seemed to form these words.

Lois opened her mouth but nothing came out. He wasn't making sense.

"Who's got you?" She spluttered.

"I have." Came a second voice. Lois felt herself passed over like a parcel, albeit marked 'fragile'

"You take the chopper." Wonder Woman said to Superman. "I'll drop Miss Lane at Street Level."

"The Flash is arriving on the ground." Superman said as he gladly moved away from Wonder Woman. No Lois reflected he was shying away from her. Holding the damaged helicopter above his head.

Lois felt like she was on some crazy roller coaster ride, as her stomach lurched and she and the Amazon Princess settled down outside the block of buildings the constituted Luthor Town.

"Wonder Woman, what's going on."

"Possession of substance K is illegal Miss Lane."

The Amazon reached out unzipped her jacket with one hand, and with the other balanced the large emerald pendant on her necklace with the other.

"Where did you get this?"

"It was a gift." Lois responded. She bit her lip, this wasn't right. "Not that it matters to you.

"Hey – don't do that." Lois snapped. But it was too late the necklace was in Wonder Woman's hands.

"You can't..." But Lois found she was speaking to the wind for a second time, as the red and blue, gold accessorised demi-god was already a distant pin prick.

Lois hit her cell. "Terry where are you, where did Superman put you and Scott down – I need you with me ASAP."

High above her she could see the two flying figures were engaging the attackers over Luthor Town. The robots were tumbling into the plaza below as the fight progressed to quickly for the human eye to register.

"Tell me you got that – any of that." She said as she ran towards her Camera Operator. She was proud of her ability to sprint in heels. It's practically a superpower in itself she thought.

Superman landed in the central open space that was heart of the Luthor Town development. Wonder Woman followed, bringing the remains of robot with her, it was strung up in her golden lasso, crushed by the fine rope.

"What are they saying?" Lois asked Terry. She knew he could lip read.

"Best I can tell." He replied his eye fixed to the view finder of his video camera. "Is something along the lines of - this was too easy."

"Tell that to Luthor Corp guests." Lois snapped. She scowled at the Amazon who had taken her necklace, her frown deepened when she considered her stated reason for doing so.

-'S-

The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph smelled the enemies presence. The trail was strong here in the baked soil. Then something remarkable happened. The sounds of an open incursion reached him. Relayed by radio waves from another place. They had come out to play, and this hound of Kryptonopolis wasn't going to let his master down. He sniffed the air, and from half a continent away the white dog took to the sky above the Nevada Desert.

Once hyper-sonic the animal honed in on the urban centre where the sounds of conflict were emanating. He observed individual Man Hunter Androids fall from the sky. His vision shifted and then with a yelp of joy the alien animal in the shape of generic white dog recognised the symbol of his house, of his home, and his master, the Kryptonian glyph for Hope.

Closing in on Metropolis the Hound of Kryptonopolis observed the Man-Hunter man-machines engage the second arm of their plan.

The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph did not understand the exact meaning of the words, although the logic circuits of his master's computer both recorded and translated them.

"Engage corporation protocol. Main target is present and identified." The signal bounced between the broken machines. It was a ruse, one which his training identified.

He accelerated to attack.

The broken machines lurched together. The female threw a bladed disc, it sliced through the self assembling automaton with impossible ease. Yet the Man-Hunter's were self repairing when powered by a purloined green lantern, and this construct was. It drew to itself the bodies of the attacking androids, metal flowed, circuits realigned, and a single Goliath Robot emerged from the transformation.

It's chest opened like a second mouth left to right, revealing a black cavity in the shape of a man.

Silver mercurial tendril shot forth reaching out towards the Kryptonian. At the same time plasma cannons roared green, and emerald fire rolled towards the Man of the House of El.

The Hound of Kryptonopolis growled, the stench was foul. It may not recognise this evil by name, but the animal recognised a hunter seeking prey.

The Woman pushed in before his master, deflecting the green flame with her shining wrists. Light poured from the master's eyes red and hot. The Robot ceased firing only because it's weapons were damaged, seconds later it had repaired and reconfigured them, but only after the masters double flying punch had launched it skyward.

The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph knew this was a but a temporary respite.

"Engage secondary protoculs." The Man-Hunter signal barked.

Together the two warriors rose to confront the machine. Then as cued it's approach changed. An exploding Goliath Machine was gone transformed in to a vast dusty cloud that hailed down on the gawking people of Metropolis below.

-'*'-

Superman watched as the reporter for WGBS - Lois Lane and her Camera Operator pushed forward through the crowd. Video rolling. They didn't see the very fine descending fragments of the machine construct.

Microscopic vision telescoped in on the dust as it accelerated to ground. Superman was both stunned and alarmed by what he saw.

"Diana, the dust!" He called out falling to the Plaza.

"It appears the attacking robot has been destroyed." Lois announced. Around her the invisible to the eye particles fell at accelerated rate, and it was then the reporter recognised the consequences. Terry began to cough.

Superman observed these things. He could see Lane tasted that the air was tainted, but even though the reporter gagged on air, coughing and folding over, those around her seemed to fair worse. Collapsing they began fit and spasm. Lane fell to her knees beside her colleague. She shook him. "Terry - Come on. Come on."

Superman landed beside her. "Miss Lane you must to leave the area." He told her.

"No." She snapped. "What's going on? What's happening to these people?"

"It's poison after a fashion." The Man of Steel replied. He didn't want to tell this woman the truth, not yet, she was tainted by fast decaying Kryptonite radiation. His eyes narrowed.

"Lead fibres weaved into your dress?"

It was a question Lane understood that. Yet from her expression Superman could tell it just didn't make sense to her. She was ignorant, both of the necklace's real purpose and that of the gown she was wearing. That made sense if these were Luthor's gifts to her. The plot thickened.

What purpose did these gifts serve?.

Superman grew angry.

Lane's Cameraman seemed to respond to Lois's voice. Then without a word Terry Voigt rose up from the pavement. His eyes flashed Emerald. Then his extended hand morphed. Flesh was reconstituted as metal.

The dust Superman had examined was made up of Man-Hunter nano-bots, countless microscopic machines working in concert. They had infected this man and instituted reconstruction using his living body as the material for their purpose.

Superman felt the touch of the Martian Man-Hunter's mind. Their neural link was active. Superman broadcast his findings.

"How can we tell who is affected – infected by these robot mites?" Barry Allen asked. The Flash was running damage control and limitation, crowd containment, using his speed to generate targeted whirlwinds to deal with potentially dangerous debris in the aftermath of the first Android incursion.

"I'm trying." Superman replied. He scanned the downed people, they were contaminated but unconscious, but this was only part of the story – so far only the WGBS Cameraman had on waking begun to transform. Could there be another factor at work?

Time was against him, fractions of a seconds mattered here and now. The Man-Hunter nanites were rebuilding this man as a machine before Superman's eyes.

Superman remembered Ganthet's words, the Oan had told the Justice League that the Man-Hunters had known about the Earth's unique significance for almost a thousand years. Long enough to embed themselves deeply in the emerging technological society of modern history.

Terry's face contorted as if his soul was at war with his mind. His mouth opened and with a low empty wail he cried out to his co-worker. "Run Lois. Run!"

Superman pulled Lane away as she tried to reach out to her conflicted colleague and from the now fully formed weapon embedded into his arm Terry the Camera Man fired.

Hot plasma engulfed Superman, the green energy slamming into him like water from a high pressure hose. He was being pushed back, he sank to one knee in the midst of the raging green discharge. His anger intensified. Substance-K. Weaponised Kryptonite. How was it possible?

This didn't make sense he was acutely sensitive to Kryptonite radiation, having lived with a shard of this crystalline poison in his body for over two decades. Yet this poor man possessed by the alien technology of the Man-Hunter's was not K contaminated. How then, Superman wondered, was he able to blast Kryptonite tainted plasma from the mouth of the weapon that had sprung from his hand?

As his boots scraped against the ground, Superman was like a man pushing against an invisible opponent and losing. Diana dropped before him, her arms crossed deflecting the attack around her. Gasping, free - he took to the sky to examine the fallen crowd.

"Saved me again Princess. It's becoming a habit." Superman noted across the comm line. Adding "Jo – please proceed with caution, fire based weaponry in use."

Wonder Woman stepped forward and brought the mutating man down. Her fist contacting his chin, and then she crushed his weapon array under foot. Brutal but necessary.

Superman expected it to be only a temporary solution. Man-Hunter tech was self replicating – self repairing. Launching upwards Wonder Woman joined him, taking the high-ground as it were.

"The most radioactive location down there is Lois Lane." He told her. "I can tell she's K exposed, Kryptonite makes my skin crawl, and yet this other man attacks with weaponised Kryptonite plasma – but where's the power source? I swear to you I felt nothing of Substance-K from his person."

"There must be some kind of remote energy transfer going on." Diana suggested. "I'd guess given the Man Hunters previous MO we're looking for a stolen Green Lantern Power Battery."

"That is somehow channelling Substance K." Superman agreed.

"So we've got to neutralise the central source – Kill the Queen to stop her drones." Diana concluded, her hand pointed to the crowd. "The Man-Hunter possessed is repairing himself, and he soon will have allies.

Superman could see how other from the fallen were joining the fast changing WBGS Camera man. Rising from the ranks of the comatose, as their bodies were rewritten from human to machine.

Superman tried again in vain to determine why some individuals were singled out, while others remained unaffected. Of these only the Lane woman was still conscious. This troubled him, as did the fact she was refusing to leave the scene. Superman had to admire her grit, foolhardy as it was, it gave him reason to re-evaluate his opinion of Lex's girlfriend. "Luthor chooses his foot soldiers well." Superman pointed to Lois who had collected the fallen video camera, and was broadcasting the scene. "But I'm beginning to think this one is just a pawn in his games."

"One of many." Diana agreed adding. "You should not judge her so harshly, Patriarch's world sets impossible standards for women, and then erects invisible barriers to their progress." Diana chided. She said. "I don't think Luthor would be as obvious as to house the Central Power Source for the Man-Hunter's in his own house – but equally a man like Luthor would want such a power close to hand."

"Indeed – but where?" Superman wondered, seconds past as his eyes twitched and flickered, his purpose reconnaissance. He suspected the Man-Hunters would have anticipated his skill.

Diana wore the expression of the goddesses of the hunt. Artemis. Science and Magic met in common purpose. Their search proved fruitless, and all the while an army of persons now machines took shape below them.

Diana practised strategy. "I have signalled to the Green Lantern Corps." Wonder Woman told him. "However Sector 2814 covered a vast tract of space, and even if Jordan were here I would expect the Man-Hunter's are practised in concealing stolen Oan tech from the Emerald Knights."

He nodded. "And it seems from us too."

Diana frowned she had something of importance to say, he recognised it in her eyes.

"By Athena, Kal these machines have a target, their actions and methods all point..."

"To me." Superman finished her sentence.

-'*'-

Lois knew it was hinky. She was on her feet, feeling like crap – looking like crap she wagered, but that was streets ahead of poor Terry and the rest. Her fingers were white – pressed hard against the grip of the video camera, and her legs shook in time to her heart, which ran ahead of itself. Adrenline and determination kept her rooted to the spot, kept her in the game.

"I can't make out what the Superman and Wonder Woman are doing. They appear to be hovering some distance above the Plaza. I can see a number of individuals from among the crowd, including WGBS own Terry Voigt..." Lois voice cracked at this moment, she swallowed hard listening to the memory of her fathers voice, steely, authoritative.

"People are being consumed – replaced by alien robotic technology." Lane panned the camera fighting herself to keep the shot steady – slow, professional. "People are vanishing." Lois reported. There was a flash of red, then another green. "Could this be the work of self styled Justice League?"

Lane's camera returned to the foot of the Lex Towers, Luthor Corp's headquarters. Here the Man-Hunter army was congregating.

-'S'-

The Hound of Kryptonopolis arrived over the city find the stench of the metal mayhem of the Man-Hunter's assailing his nostrils. Hot plasma rose like stinking green flares into the air, as his master weaved too and fro avoiding the blasts, counter striking with red fire from the sky.

On the ground the woman used a golden rope like a whip, and a lasso, like chain shot from a cannon. She shredded the machine infantry.

"They are worse than a Hydra!" She shouted loudly.

The Kryptonian proto-organic poly-morph tore past the crowd of man-machines, which once burned and fragmented, reconstructed themselves. Some coming together to create large machines, other fragments reformed into smaller however lethal robots. There was nothing of humanity left in these constructs.

"Technological zombies." The master shouted.

The pup ignored this fight. He had a far more fowl stink in his super nose than these undead robots.

On the edge of the main gardens atop of Lex Towers, Luthor Town's owner peered down at the bright firework like display, made all the more spectacular by the onset of night. He held a device the chattered like a squirrel in his hand.

The dog's ears pricked up.

"The background K value is sky rocketing. The Alien is weakening. His attention is diverted." Lex Luthor said. Beside him the exceedingly tall and broad blonde woman nodded. Her grey business suit cut more like a military uniform.

Looking at the clicking meter in the Billionaire Scientists hand she nodded. "The time has come." She told the bald man.

"Very well Mercy Graves. Let me see your true colours." Luthor said quietly, almost reverently.

Then without another word the woman who was known as Lex Luthor's ever present body guard, dropped over the edge of Luthor Corp Towers.

The Hound of Kryptonopolis needed no confirmation, his nose told him all he needed to know.

She did not fall but accelerated towards the Man of the House of El, faster than a speeding bullet. Glass shattering in the wake of her sonic boom. The Master moved quickly, but not fast enough. The fowl stench had poisoned him, the pup knew it.

He was fast, he was strong, and he was fresh to this fight. A white Knight, this pale dog was a hero. He was almost there.

-'*'-

Mercy Graves slammed into Superman driving him into the ground. Diana watched the attack unfold as she stepped up and away from the attacking horde. It was as she feared escalating background K radiations had slowed Superman down.

Diana wiped blood from her eyes, her marble skin was less resilient than his Steel, it took less to make her bleed.

The Man-Hunter that was Lex Luthor's blonde body-guard, emerged from beneath the cloak of living tissue re-engineered on the fly into liquid metal. Diana understood their enemies strategy.

"Hera!" She spat as machines large and small, a mass of arms and tentacles of steel assaulted her, slowed her down prevented her from returning to her friends side.

A punch from the Man-Hunter Mercy Graves, sent Superman staggering, like a boxer refusing to yield he smiled through bloodied lips. "Come on then."

Behind the Man of Tomorrow rising from the litter of the battle, from metal fragments and broken machines was the original Goliath Robot reconstructed. It's man shaped chest cavity opened like a sarcophagus ready to swallow Superman.

Diana was not ready to let this happen. The Lariat of gold, unbreakable and forever bound to her will, flew true, and in truth folded itself around the Goliath construct. She yanked the machine, it staggered. The unbreakable cord tightened crushing the machine.

Then the Dog was at Mercy Graves throat. Teeth snapped at the Machines chest. Tearing at metal and fibrous insides. Merciless the Man-Hunter pounded the dog at it's throat with its fists. Superman reacted. He grabbed the Machines wrists, bowing under the machines remorseless pressure, hurt, weak, but not defeated. Then together dog and man struggled as a doubly bright green glow was revealed, by the animals snapping jaws.

There was yelp of pain from the white dog, a gasp of agony from the Man of Steel.

Wonder Woman saw what the incredible hound had done, she saw what the dog dug for within the Man-Hunter's chest.

Diana pulled her Lasso through the body of the Goliath Robot like a fine wire through cheese, her cast flowing smoothly in a single motion, the golden line fishing into the wound created by the dogs impossible steel jaws. Pulling back her catch resisted, metal fought her, as Superman battled to keep the arms from grasping at her lariat. Diana flew skyward.

"Hera, help me." She said as with all her god given strengths Diana pulled her prize free. A Double trophy, of Substance-K and a purloined Power Lantern.

It was if a switch had been thrown, and the massed collective of machines around them in the Plaza just stopped and dropped, like a myriad of clockwork toys coming to the end of their spring.

Diana drew the green glowing objects to her. It was over.

Casting them skyward, she twirled above Metropolis, she span them free of her lariat sending both Lantern and K-Crystal outwards beyond the atmosphere.

"Let the Lantern Corps deal with them." She said across the comm line to Jo and Barry.

"Hal Jordan is already inbound to the Power Battery's signal." The Martian Manhunter confirmed.

Diana fell to the ground once more.

There knelt Kal exhausted, before him the fallen inert body that had been a faux woman, Mercy Graves, a fallen Man-Hunter. Torn asunder, limb from limb by the enraged Superman his prodigious strength returning to him once the Kryptonite had been pulled clear.

In the Man of Steels arms lay the unmoving body of a generic white dog, its pink tongue hung lifeless from its bloodied jaws where Man-Hunter metal had cut into it's Kryptonite weakened flesh.

That was Diana's incredible conclusion as she put her arm around her friend, somehow this animal was like Kal, a native of Krypton; possessed of both his incredible strength and weakness. She crouched beside Kal, and stroked the pale headed dog still head, reading the shield shaped tag that hung from the animals red collar.

"Krypto."


	18. Chapter 18 Special Vignette

_"Krypto."_

_Diana wasn't about to let this brave animals sacrifice go unrewarded. Krypto had appeared from no where to selflessly lay down his life to save Kal. She wondered how this could be – from where had the animal come? Questions that could wait. She already knew why – Diana recognised the unconditional love of absolute loyalty._

_Wonder Woman had been blessed by Artemis goddess of the Hunt with a preternatural understanding and connection to the natural world. Nature, beautiful, vital, but bloody in tooth and claw – she felt it all. Artemis was nature personified, the hunt, or in it's purest sense, the struggle to survive, the reality of natural selection._

_As Wonder Woman surged upwards, in her arms her cargo, her friend, his hound, she wasn't thinking as much as feeling. This was another facet of natural reality. Not as ancient as the hunt, but primal non the less. She was running on instinct more than intellect as deep seated emotional ties that bind and form maternity drove her._

_Around about Diana formed the magical pattern of Hermes Gift, the Talaria became her winged chariot, in this modern age a stealthy dart, an invisible plane. Within this latter day chariot of fire lay Kal slumped in exhaustion, drifting in and out of consciousness in the Metropolis night. Then as she flew beyond the paper thin envelope of Earth's precious atmosphere, and into the light of the sun, she saw colour returning to his cheeks. Sol his adoptive star was washing away the sickly green – grey tone that his fevered skin turned in the presence of Substance-K's poison._

_His hand enclosed around hers as she smoothed the stubborn curl from his damp brow. Free of gravity they were floating far above the world._

_He smiled weakly._

_"Sleep Kal-El." Diana told him, as against the starry background of space in the light of the distant nuclear furnace of Sol Superman rested._

_Diana let her sky-chariot find it's own way following the dawn across the earth. She knelt beside the __brave hound. _

_She marvelled at the animals resilience. Krypto had seemed dead in Kal's arms, but Diana was not unfamiliar with miracles. Like Superman this Kryptonian pup soaked up the sun rays as a desiccated seed might water. The appearance of death past away, and life asserted itself. Krypto's tongue was pinker, but his breathing was laboured and desperate. Diana did not need the Man of Tomorrow's x-ray like vision to know the Man-Hunter Machine that had masqueraded as the human Mercy Graves, had snapped this young dog's ribs, pounding his insides. The exhausted animal had been so nearly dead, his life energy spent bravely._

_Now in the golden sunlight this living battery could recharge just as Kal did, but would he – could he heal? Krypto's injuries were grave, far worse than just broken bones. Diana did not know the limits of Kryptonian physiology, human or otherwise. Could the dog heal itself?_

_Wonder Woman was certain, she was not going to give up on this pale hound from beyond. As Superman slept recovering, Diana tended them both. "My ship knows which way to go." She whispered to them._

_Diana knew where she needed to go, and this time she wasn't going to take no for an answer._


	19. Chapter 19

"You brought a dog to Themyscira." Lana spat.

Clark slipped in and out of a purple haze. Jimmy Hendricks' licks criss crossed his fevered mind. A half remembered sound track accompanying his partial consciousness.

No it couldn't be Lana. Lana Kent was dead. Clark Kent a widower, a runaway to Metropolis. He remembered Jerry's bar; substance K – Kryptonite, Kal-El; he remembered the Justice League and Superman. Not for the first time Deep Purple Rays washed over him. Beyond on the distant horizon smoke rolled across the water. Creating a wall between the outside world and this hidden mystical realm of Azure seas, and golden beaches, verdant green forests garnished with tropical colours, and teeming with life.

"A dog! Princess what were you thinking?" She was a redhead, but she wasn't Lana. Taller, stronger than his late wife, and ever so angry at Diana.

"Artemis." Diana chided. "A dog, what of it – would you rather I let Krypto suffer?" Wonder Woman gently stroked the white Hound of Kryptonopolis as he too bathed under the light of the Amazon's incredible healing Purple Rays. Like his new found master, Krypto lay sprawled on the crisp white linen, beds suspended beneath the magical healing light of Themyscira. His legs kicked gently as he chased rabbits or perhaps Manhunters in his sleep.

Superman recalled how the animal had saved him, and suffered terrible injuries in doing so.

Around them both rose a classical marble pillared building, open to the beach and water. A perfect fantasy made real.

Beside the one man and his dog stood the two Amazons. One accepting, her hand touching his fevered brow, stroking the dog's soft ears. The other a dark red shadow – disapproving.

Beyond this room his x-ray like vision revealed an institution – an island given over to medicine and medical research.

The redhead frowned. "Don't you dare be coy with me!" She snapped at Diana. Her long pony tail whipped across her back as she turned, it fell back long enough to reach her thighs. She was barely contained in the tiny white translucent dress, the classic Greek Chitin. She continued. "Themyscira is a paradise. What is natural for the animals, given their short lives, red in tooth and claw, is not natural to the Amazons. In nature males are necessary for the purpose of procreation." She paused her anger became cold, her tone more reflective. "And pregnancy is a necessity for those not blessed with immortality by the gods."

Superman thought he was missing something – some aspect, perhaps political – certainly personal to this Artemis. If this strident woman and Diana were Amazons, they appeared to his fevered dream to be sisters of different tribes.

"We are not animals. We don't live like this." Artemis finger stabbed toward him, if it had been a spear, it would have been directed to his heart. As it was, Superman thought the lethal intention was implicit in the Warriors stance. "Even when they were needed, the Bana did not bring our dogs into our homes!"

Diana looked stern, not so much angry as disappointed.

"I don't know how the Bana-Mighdall treat their males when they fell sick..." Her words were quickly interrupted.

"We didn't – _they_ took care of their own. Such is the natural order..."

"Survival of the fittest." Diana countered.

"It is the way of nature - even here in Paradise Princess." Artemis replied. She folded her arms defiant. "Biologically males are weaker at birth, mature later, they are born disadvantaged. Gaia ensures only the strongest seed survives."

"In the wild." Diana agreed. "But here on the Isle of Healing, in Themyscira - even during our long isolation – has treat outsiders. Amazons have brought the infirm and the hurt, those plucked from the seas around our island, lost souls to storms and chance accidents, sailors and men in the main to this Island – and here my Sisters and I have healed them and sent them home to their families."

"I am aware you have previous form, what was that old man called? Trevor, Steven, an officer of the Patriarchy's most powerful Military – what became of him?"

Diana appeared unmoved. "Man, his days are like grass, like a flower of the field."

"You have been outside too long Amazon, because you are not strong like the Bana. You have been tainted – infected." Artemis laughed. "I can see how you look at this one when he sleeps."

Diana blushed. Superman saw it. His heart skipped a beat, and suddenly he found himself confronting the reality of his feelings. His body threatened to betray him. Quickly he began recalling the value of PI to several hundred thousand decimal places. Grateful for Kryptonian muscle control.

Artemis continued.

"The Bana have been constantly inoculated against Man's World by necessary exposure. Our strength comes from selective breeding, we are self made. Your strength comes from the gods, ours from independence, from both Olympus and Patriarch's world."

"Independence?" Diana said quietly. "Really – truly? For centuries the Bana kidnapped the strongest men selecting the best as stud-mates to father a new generation – how is that independent."

Artemis scowled. "Better that – than this." She waved dismissively at Superman and Krypto. "Diana is this how you pretend to represent our United Tribes?

"It is one thing to tend to an animal caught inadvertently in your snare, tis another to go out of your gates, your grounds, your lands - to go out looking for stray dogs." Artemis hissed. "You know what they say about helping stray dogs."

Superman raised himself from the bed. "I assure you, I have better manners than to bite the hand of those who feed me. My mother raised me better than that."

Artemis betrayed her surprise."He speaks." Her words coughed.

Superman was pleased that his grasp of the Amazonian dialect, a language closely related to Ancient Greek, was authentic. He pitched his accent as close to Diana's as he could. Artemis's own distinct timbre seemed to be coloured with middle eastern nuances, hints of Aramaic, and Egypt. Superman considered what such details might reveal about her tribes origin.

"Diana - how long have I been out of it?" He asked, speaking to the Princess in English, he did not feel disposed to include Artemis. He wondered if her overt misandry was the rule here, and Diana's kindness the exception.

He smiled broadly. There was no question in his mind that Diana was exceptional.

"Not long, a few hours that's all." She told him. Her eyes questioning, embarrassed he remembered he was grinning like a schoolboy. Visibly Superman relaxed sighing with relief. "The last time..."

Diana interrupted him holding her hand up. "Last time you slipped into a coma for months, but that was down to the overloading of your neural pathways, by the information that had lain dormant in your psyche for decades. This time I had a working experience... err... knowledge of your physiology, and I was better able to calibrate the Purple Ray accordingly."

"And Krypto?"

"He's going to be fine. Remarkably his basic biochemistry is very similar to yours." Diana replied, adding. "Of course here on Themyscira I had access to better facilities."

"Better – even for dogs?" Superman muttered running his hand through his black hair.

Diana pretended not to hear. "This is Doctor Althea." She said directing his attention to a third woman who now joined them, emerging from an ante room. Artemis stepped back, still fuming.

Althea naturally possessed the striking height and beauty of her people. This Amazon medic favoured longer robes, which bore passing resemblance to a doctors long coat.

Diana explained to him. "With her assistance I was able to make the best use of the data I compiled – well 'Last Time'.

"Diana is far too modest." Althea said. "Her earlier work on the Purple Ray amounted to reinvention. And while you aren't the first Alien she has treated here, your unique physiology demanded significant improvements were made to the Purple Ray. In this case the Student has become the Master, and the girl I tutored in matters medical now eclipses me."

Althea smiled warmly at Diana, it was a look of love and admiration. A refreshing change from the open hostility of Artemis.

Superman however noted Althea in turn looked at him in a different way. Simple clinical fascination.

I am male after all he reflected. No wonder while recovering here that Jo J'onzz had chosen her female body form.

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance Doctor." Superman replied in his best Sunday voice of respect and courtesy.

"And I yours. I have dealt with gods and demigods, demons from beyond Dooms Door, countless kinds of monster and fantastical creatures of sea and land, but Aliens rarely. I foresee I shall be at work for a millennia unravelling the complexities of your highly evolved physiology."

Superman found himself looking at Artemis. The red haired Warrior was smiling. An incongruous expression given her earlier ill humour. Never the less its warmth made her beautiful. He wondered what notion had pleased her. He was looking at the Bana-Mighall as he listened to the approach of gentle footsteps.

"Althea is known for her hunger for knowledge." A voice echoed from the Shadows.

Nothing was hidden by darkness to the Man of Tomorrow, yet around this approaching Amazon hung a mist with a mystical nature. Magic was his weakness, as much as it was Diana's great strength. This Amazon was draped in a magical aura as if it were a enveloping hooded robe.

"I am Menalippe." She told him, stepping forward as she spoke. "Diana your Mother comes to greet the man whom _you brought through the barrier_."

"At last." Diana replied.

Superman considered Menalippe's words, and her emphasis. He appreciated the distinction. Random chance might bring a sailor, or in more recent times an American airman to Themyscira. These were accidents – but Diana had brought him and Krypto here by design. A deliberate act – and one that defied her cultures rules.

This seemed to be the case, if only because Diana's mother had not yet greeted her daughter. His instincts again proved correct as the Queen entered this Temple of Healing. Sited as his incredible vision established on one of the smaller islands of Great Themyscira itself.

Hippolyta tri-millennial Queen of the Amazons looked as if she were Diana's twin, she showed no outward sign of great age. Yet between mother and daughter there were subtle differences. Diana was lithe athletic, with the poise of dancer and grace to shame a cat. Queen Hippolyta was regal, where Diana floated, the Mother processed. She was everything he imagined a Monarch to be, right down to the cool distance in the blue of her eyes.

Around him the women fell to one knee, they rested their opposite elbow on the corresponding thigh, the fist pressed to the forehead of their bowed head.

"Your Majesty." He managed to say, as he attempted to stand, his red boot touched the marble floor, as Diana in an instant caught hold of him. Pressed against him saying. "No Kal, you must rest. Don't rush yourself, you are still recovering from the Purple Ray's effects."

"Indeed - do not trouble yourself with formality." Hippolyta said. Her smile was warm enough. It echoed Diana's like the moon reflected the sun. Her voice shared Diana's cadence, Superman at once found the tone charming.

"Thank you." Superman replied. It was clear to him the Queen had granted him favour. He relented. Falling between leaning on Diana, the bed and remaining on his feet.

"You are the _son_ of a Republic." She said.

Superman wasn't sure what she meant. Was it that she expected him not to know how to conduct himself, because he was an American, or because he was a man? She said _son_, although he couldn't help remembering Artemis word – _dog_, as the redhead Warrior glared at him once more, as she rose from one knee.

Superman decided he preferred Artemis's open hostility for its honesty to the Queen's polite indifference.

Remember he told himself this woman was raped, her city sacked, her sisters murdered. Tread carefully Clark Kent, be better than a man, be Superman.

"I have reviewed the documents you provided from this Secretary General of Man's World United Nations Diana." Hippolyta stated. "Although the founding principles – the ideals of this society have merit, the actuality is different."

It was cold comfort to Superman to detect that the Queen's manner lacked warmth – even with her daughter. There was clearly tension – an estrangement between the two.

Superman recalled that Diana had rebelled against her Mother's wishes to take the mantle of Ambassador to the Patriarchs, or as Man's World called her Wonder Woman, and now she had defied her peoples conventions in bringing him to Themyscira's hidden location.

"Just _because_ you _can't do everything doesn't_ mean you shouldn't do something." Diana replied.

"Would you have me sup with the Lords of Arabia who forbid Women to drive their cars, should I take the proffered hands of Dictators - men whose fingers drip with the blood of innocents? Who permit a generation of women to die before they are born because they are considered less valuable than a male child. Who allow the brutal mutilation of girls..."

"We breathe the same air, we walk the same dirt, magic veil or no veil of mist, all these things happen upon the face of Gaia. Turn away from the Earth if you must Mother, but do so in the knowledge that evil only triumphs because the good do nothing.

"Hide behind Zeus's Island chain enveloping magical burka – by all means – if that is your choice Mother, but I done with hiding from the face evil." Diana held her fist as a Warrior. "Instead I will show evil my hand."

"By confronting evil, you threaten to bring it home. To Themyscira" Artemis said. "Or does my tribes history escape you Princess."

Diana shook her head. "Did hiding save the old town of Bana-Migdhall from the greedy hands of the Illumanti? Did hiding away prevent Circe from bewitching those who survived with her false promises?" Diana asked her apparent rhetorical questions.

"We only survived because _we_ Artemis – you and I – put aside three thousand years of animosity."

Superman felt his strength returning, he took advantage of this moment of silence to stand on his own two feet.

"You speak the truth daughter." Hippolyta said at last. Her eyes staring at him. Words for his benefit? He thought so.

"New Bana-Mighdall was raised up here on Themyscira as a testament to the healing of an old quarrel." Hippolyta said. "My poor sister Antiope died long ago, and I weep for her passing, and at same time I shed tears of joy that so many of her children now share in our god given paradise."

"Is it true?" Superman spoke in Greek. "Did the Illuminati destroy your city Artemis?"

The red head Amazon looked at him without expression. Superman thought for a moment she meant to ignore him. He listened to her steady heartbeat. Her measured breath. Since the Queen's arrival the Bana Warrior had leashed her anger. Like a martial artist before a fight. She gave him no clue to her thoughts, even as she replied.

"We were twice bewitched Manchild. Once by the promise of an eternal man's seed that would give us the immortality the gods and Themyscira granted our ancient sisters. Yet this eternal man _savaged_ us, and destroyed our city for the wealth of knowledge we had amassed over three thousand years. Second came the she-wolf Circe, she promised us not only immortality – but Themyscira itself."

"Circe – a woman – a Sorceress of immense power, she incited the Bana-Mighall. They invaded us." Diana explained.

"Circe betrayed us." Artemis spat – her anger surfacing again. "She cast us, this Island and all of us, into a demon pit. An Abyss of torment."

"Together my Daughter, and my Great Niece set aside the differences between sisters, together they defeated the demons, the Abyss, and Circe's curse. Themyscira rose again – and the Bana settled here, rebuilt here. Together we created an United Queendom of two nations – of two traditions."

Superman nodded. The story of two factions united in a civil war resonated with his understanding of history.

The Man of Tomorrow was struck by the thought that the world stood on the edge of another kind of Abyss, with it's own kind of demons. Mechanical, but no less eternal, and perhaps all the more evil for their emotionless evil.

To Artemis and the Queen he said. "Diana and I have fought the Illumanit ourselves. Twice. They are allied with a machine race of homicidal Androids. The Manhunters do not differentiate between male and female, their hatred of life is sexless."

Wonder Woman nodded. "It is true my Mother and my Queen, it is true Artemis of the Bana-Mighdall." Diana passed to her mother a bronze bound tablet. "The details of Superman's and my own encounters with the enemy are contained within."

Hippolyta took the record from Diana, who said. "This alliance of ancients from above and beyond, threatens all races, humanoid and truly alien." Diana paused. "Kal and I fought a great bull of heaven, that rode with them."

Her mother shook her head shocked. "Lamassu? Truly this is an evil omen. This is an alliance that threatens even the gods themselves." The Queen said.

"The Manhunters mean to destroy the Guardians, and unleash chaos." Wonder Woman stated. "There is a new Abyss mother, and these Android Assassins crawl out of it, intent on turning the Universe into a hell-pit of their making.

"Just as two tribes – sisters – put aside old enmities to unite to defeat a common enemy or be destroyed, so we face the same choice. Unite with the best of Patriarchs World, or else be destroyed with it."

Superman watched the Queen as she considered Diana's powerful words. He was impressed and moved by her, and he hoped the three thousand year old Monarch and mother felt the same.

"Menalippe, it is as you predicted. Perhaps the time has come." The Queen nodded. "Very well Daughter I shall call the Senate, and the two nations of Themyscira will consider the news our Ambassador – my daughter has brought with her from Man's World."


	20. Chapter 20

The setting sun washed over the seas that embraced the Isle of Healing, Diana watched as Apollo's Chariot sank into the horizon. A band of fiery red kissed the darkening water.

Still my beating heart she thought, deliberately her breath slowed. For a moment unbidden her mind's eyes saw in the deepening red a serpentine S, she gasped, it was as if her own dark hair was now wrapped into alien cloth. Themyscira was magical, and her Princess truly knew it.

Here the setting sunlight was refracted in the mystical haze. A mist made where the magical cloak of Olympus rested across the eternal home of the Amazons, hiding this island paradise from the ever changing world beyond.

Diana could feel this magic in the air, an ever present kiss of static, as familiar as the rhythm of her breath, and just as easily forgotten. Resting, still, breathing, pausing to contemplate the power of the gods. This always gave her goose bumps.

Why today did she feel so different? There was heat in her cheeks, red across her chest, a primal blush as her body betrayed her.

Kal – Clark – Superman. He stood, red as the sky as blue as the ocean below, feet on golden sands. With a casual and fluid motion he flung the hefty branch, a piece of flotsum. Up, up and away the timber soared. The drift wood disappeared away from them high across the waves.

She felt the warmth of the sands, still charged with the heat of the day under her fingers. Diana hugged her knees as the log flew away from them. Krypto bounded, giving chase, faster than a speeding bullet the hound of Kryptonopolis shot across the waves. With the eye of the goddess of the hunt, she followed him, the canine left a trail of water whipped up into airborne wake behind him as he shot after the water washed tree.

Followed by a distant crack of thunder.

Not for the first time his teeth locked onto the target. Like an elastic propeller the white dog flipped in the air around the driftwood before returning to a horizontal course, back to his master. A heart beat later he was back. Fluttering behind him was the red flag of the House of El, the yellow crest centre. How and why such a ensign unravelled from the canines collar was down to the hidden technology within, it seemed to be a whimsical nod to the _Kryptonian proto_-_organic_ poly-morph's alien origins. Diana had no way means of judging the culture of Kal's homeworld. A culture where capes were oh so de rigueur, that this smarter than average canine was self aware enough to want to emulate the Kryptonian norm.

Then damp dog bounded into her lap with puppy like enthusiasm, his pace beyond Terran norms. Normally Diana enjoyed the preternatural advantages of magically enhanced speed. Wet dogs were easily side stepped, and brought to heal. The gift of Hermes that differentiated her from her sisters, along with her god forged weapons, made her super human – but this was a super canine.

Krypto was all over her, his lightning tongue blurred pink and wet. He licked at the salt spray from her skin. His tail whipping up a miniature twister that whisked up the sand behind him. So it was here on an island of immortals that the Princess of Themyscira suddenly felt altogether human. The realisation hit her. Not so much like a truck - as Etta Candy might say, because after all Wonder Woman would have shrugged off a careering Semi without a second thought.

Krypto was more powerful than any truck, even a locomotive. Here and now she was bowled over.

Crossing her arms not to stop faster than sound bullets, but rather the over enthusiastic hound of Kryptonopolis, just as if she were any other girl, on any beach, anywhere – out there in the real world, with sand in her hair desperately trying not to get her face wet with dog slobber.

"Down boy!" Superman said firmly, as he picked up Krypto bodily from atop of Diana. The words themselves didn't matter as much as the tone. The pitch and timbre of command Clark Kent had honed on the Kansas Plains. For Krypto didn't get down, so much as up, for as Kal released him the pup simply hung in the air where he was. Krypto's cape fell vertically, as the dog rolled onto his back, exposing his pink underside, his head to one side, tongue lolling out between his bright white canine teeth.

Superman extended his hand. Diana was suddenly aware she was prostrate on the ground before a man. A man with manners. The Princess of Themyscira grabbed the cowboy's hand as he offered to help her to her feet. His touch gentle but firm, his fingers warm, full of energy, his pulse so strong and steady. A heartbeat, a shared moment. Future Super senses met the Wonder of old magic, with their powers a single second between them might have well been a thousand years.

In a flash and a blur of blue and red, measured in thousandths of a second, Diana pulled the Man of Tomorrow towards her. She rose independent of gravity not to stand with him, but to pull him to her, and with all the skill and artistry of the Amazon Martial training she drew him close, turning him beneath her. Now he lay on the sands of her homeland, pinned beneath her.

"Down boy." Diana said, staring into his oh so blue eyes. She bent down, bringing her face close to his, the smell of him was like the sky on a brilliant blue day, spiced with salt from sea. Primal and masculine.

Her lips hovered over his, she felt his hot breath on her skin, a gasp, surprise intermingled with fire. His eyes flashed red, a special kind of anger. Beneath her hips is body betrayed him.

Her mother had warned Diana about a moment like this.

Diana lingered. Thousands upon thousands of milliseconds past, spent staring into his soul where she watched the red of Krypton mixed with blue of Gaia. This man of two worlds.

Thousands of a metre from his lips, for a long moment they were both still. Only the sound of the sea, and the rushing of life blood through their veins. They were like painted statues, like the marbles of ancient Greece and Rome.

"Tummy rub?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

Smallville, named after a man named Small. Small town America, Kansas, around the bustling agricultural community acres of space, another kind of Island.

Another kind of paradise, an idyll.

Superman adjusts the pitch of the blue Dodge Charger held in his hands. His fingers clamped to the Chassis rails, unconsciously he manipulates both his own mass and that of the couple of thousand pound or so of Detroit Iron suspended above him. His bio-electrical aura creating a charged field around him, that not only enables flight, but also shields him from the inevitable splatter of insect strikes at speed, and by extension the highly polished paintwork of his classic motor car. Both he and the machine are under the influence of his highly evolved physiology.

Below him the asphalt highway. It takes no time at all for the Man of Tomorrow to establish he is alone as far as the _human_ eye can see. Exhilarated fresh from Themyscira Clark Kent emerges as the red and blue of Krypton is masked by the plaid uniform of rural America, and a pair of glasses.

In a blink of eye car and Clark Kent are on the road, the V8 rumbles it's musical bass notes, a semblance of life. Kent's hand rests laconically on the Wheel, his right thumbs the shifter. His eyes find themselves focusing on the Kent Farm miles distant, and back into the heart of the engine were fire consumes gas, the fossil legacy of life from aeons past. Pistons pound like fists backwards and forward, the transmission and shaft drive the rear wheels, black rubber grates against rough pavement and the Charger surges forward.

Around him new life grows, crops grow heavy for harvest, plants driven by the sun, like him.

When Clark Kent turns home through town his arrival will have both means and reason, the old blue care will be a familiar sight to any one in Smallville.

Kent's mind searches the depths of his eidetic memory as he drives down Main Street, shops close as people like him make their way home for dinner. Perfect recall accompanied by the cacophony of his automobile, the mechanical rhythm a music all of it's own. The big old Dodge heeds his direction, as it burbles up the road to the Kent Farm House.

All the while Clark's lips still tingled from that first kiss.

"I never thought I'd be able to feel like this again." Clark said to his father. Outside his home, the two men enjoyed an after dinner beer. Ma Kent's cooking was a welcome reminder of simpler times. Clark considered these things in silence.

"Losing Lana was hard Clark." Jonathan Kent said. Perhaps a stab in dark, an attempt to gauge his son's mood.

"It was." Clark acknowledged. "But that's not what I mean Pa. There is no way Lana would want me to mourn her forever. To hide away and be alone. I've never doubted for one moment that she'd want me to move on and be happy."

"Lana was never selfish."

Clark smiled and nodded. Then his fingers closed around his beer bottle. Like a normal man might crush a tin, he shattered the glass.

He knew what his adoptive father would see, for him it would be slight of hand. One moment the bottle cracks – the next it will be gone, changed forever. Clark however saw the fragments of glass hanging in space, he directed his fingers as they plucked these shards of material, palming them like a magician, compressing them into his fist – a super vice made of steel-like flesh. Friction created heat, the glass fragments grind against his super tough hide, reformed, a ball of molten silica, pliable like orange putty in his hand.

Pursing his lips he blew on the resulting bauble.

His father raised his brow. "For Christmas?" He asked, as Clark placed the now cold glass ball on the veranda railings beside him.

"Pa I can hear the patter of the insects feet in the dust, I can feel the touch of cosmic radiation on my skin. I can see my own blood here." Clark touched the wooden rail.

Pa Kent frowned as the wood suddenly smouldered. Clark rubbed his thumb over the pinprick of carbon he had made. "I jabbed myself here, after the funeral." He added by way of explanation.

From his Father reaction Clark knew the older man was remembering the raid by the DOMA agents, they both understood what Superman's blood represented.

"I remember what it is like to be just human. How quiet and uncomplicated it was, how hard and unyielding the world was to touch and move in. Now that simplicity and resistance has gone forever. Everything is both complicated, connected and wonderful, and at the same time so fragile. It's all like cardboard and paper to me."

Jonathan Kent grabbed his son's shoulder. "Flammable?" He chuckled. Then saying. "Son surely you can still feel this." The older man squeezed harder. "Understand it. You know Ma and I haven't – won't ever stop loving you son."

Clark smiled. It was difficult for him to explain.

"Of course – but Pa, how can I put this... I guess in one way I sense you and Ma tens of thousands of times more. I can tell you how fast your heat is beating. I can estimate to a thousandth of a pound how hard you just squeezed me. I have more information, both quality and quantity."

Jonathan Kent's smile was one of childish wonder. "And isn't that better?" Pa asked Clark. "I mean to have super senses, surely makes everything - well – super?"

Clark laughed. "Does tasting the chemical components at a molecular lever of the ingredients that go together to make Mom's apple pie – actually make her apple pie taste any better? Does seeing the radio waves as well as hearing them means Mozart moves my soul more than it did before?"

"So what are you saying son – that everything is different?"

Clark nodded. "It's hard to explain Pa because... it's about I guess how everything _feels_."

"You're invulnerable. No more pain, well most of the time."

"True, and of course I'm lucky. Lucky to be Superman, to be Kryptonian _here_ means I see and understand so much more, but becoming Superman has made me more so much more than I was. That's why I'm lucky to have a met a wonderful woman who can make me feel human again."

"She's a good kisser then?"

Clark laughed at his Pa's knowing wink.

He smiled saying. "It's like this Pa, I can feel her kiss. Really feel her embrace. Just like once upon time I could feel Lana's."

Clark looked across the farmland. "I never thought I'd ever feel that sweet kind of pain again." He said quietly.

"I thought every touch would be - well like a feather brushing my skin. Not unpleasant, just always ever so gentle. Like always listening to music with the volume set at whisper silent."

"She sounds dangerous."

"She's a woman Pa."

"Heck boy she's worse than that, she's an Amazon."

Clark smiled. "Don't I know it."

Queen Hippolyta sighed knowingly. It was the kind of prayer to the gods that every mother breathes from time to time.

It was the almost silent whisper that every child understands, the one sigh that says mom knows.

"I see he has you stabling his animals." She said to Diana, gesturing to Krypto. "And I suppose he will return from his day's labours, so that you can feed him too."

Diana frowned. This was her mother, not Artemis, she had hoped for more understanding at least from her.

The Queen waved her hand to the star littered sky beyond. "What does a Superman eat and drink, Granite Bread washed down by Molten Steel?"

Diana leant forward. "Kal is with his family tonight – as I am with mine."

Her eyes danced across the white marble edifices of the Paradise City of her Sisterhood, lit in the night by bright ethereal fire, and back to her mother.

She didn't need to rebuke the Queen, Diana's posture spoke volumes. Yet without any rancour in her voice she added. "Krypto is here with me for now. You know my gifts better than anyone."

Hippolyta laughed. "I do remember the child with a thousand pets at her heels. I take it you intend to train this dog manners?" Her mother asked. She spoke no name. Her meaning perhaps deliberately unclear.

Diana knew a test when she faced one.

"His nature is gentle, his instinct is to please, and he is willing. Where better to learn than here among our people?"

"We have much to give the world." The Queen agreed, her face seemed to soften in the light of brazier's fire. Diana saw her mother was tired and troubled.

Fresh from meeting with the Islands Senate, the burden of government rested on her shoulders.

Hippolyta extended her hand and brushed the hair from Diana's cheek.

"Then the Senate have come to a decision?" She asked the Queen.

"I have." Hippolyta said. The Queen gestured to Diana to walk with her along the marble terrace of the Royal Palace. The cool wind from the sea was bracing in the night. Krypto pattered along at Diana's heels unbidden, his ears and nose twitching at preternatural speeds processing sounds and smells far above and beyond.

The Queen fixed her daughter with her eyes. "I spoke from my heart. I have told them as their Queen and Commander that we are Amazon. No Amazon shirks her duty. Beneath our feet is Dooms Door – the street to the Underworld. But there is another road, one above us.

"From the heavens come a different kind of Demon, but they desire to rape and pillage our beloved world all the same. We are Amazon, we are the Watch at the Gate. Just as we stand to defend all from the threat below us, we will stand and defend all from the threat from above – or we are nothing."

Diana nodded, as the avatar of truth her feelings were clear.

The Queen said "I see you are pleased at least." She shook her head. "Diana I don't want you to be angry with me."

"And you are not?" Diana asked directly tiring of dancing around the issue of Superman.

"That you have taken a man to your bed – should I be?"

Ah Diana thought – this is it, at last the matter at hand. It was not affairs of State – but affairs of the heart that truly troubled her mother.

It was Diana's turn to sigh. "Our lips have touched." She knew her face betrayed her, she felt herself flush as she remembered. "As for bedding Kal, there is a time for everything. Today it was for a kiss."

"A lingering embrace." The Queen corrected her daughter. "Princess and a farmers son laying on the sands, letting the waves on the shore of Island of Healing wash over them." Hippolyta stated. "Did the sea cool your ardour?"

Diana was not surprised they had been seen. She was surprised by the fact she had not cared then wrapped in Kal's arms, and she still didn't, not even now, before the Amazon's Queen; her mother.

"It seems you have learned the manners of an American."

"Perhaps better than defeating a man in combat in the morning and taking him to bed in the evening, only to lose everything come the dawn."

Hippolyta's eyes widened with anger. "Child you would speak to me of Heracles?"

"Doesn't his conquest of old Themyscira, the enslavement that followed." Diana stuck her bracelets to together so they rang like bell. "Doesn't this history still cast it's long shadow – isn't this what this – talk, is all about."

Krypto growled at the metallic noise. Diana's hand brushed his ears to reassure the hound. When she looked back she say Hippolyta wiped a tear from her eye. "I wanted you Diana, my child, my babe, more than anything, more than sisterhood, than Themyscira, more than the gods themselves."

"What are you saying?" Diana asked, placing her hands on her mothers shoulders, together the two women hugged each other

The Queen whispered. "To be a mother child of mine, to be as Gaia herself, and bring forth life! How can I not want that for you too, how can I not want you to be a mother? Babies, babies, babies."

"Mother... I should have understood, for those millennia you longed for a child and then I came to you..." Diana paused. "But why did you so oppose my leaving Themyscira, going to Man's World?" She asked. Saying. "Why always such a harsh a judge of men, a man like Kal..." Diana paused again.

Her mother was silent. Diana didn't need her Lasso to divine the truth. The answer was obvious.

"Because you loved me, you only wanted what was best for me. A partner, a suitable helper." She whispered back.

Diana felt her mothers arms drawing her closer, holding her. Only then did Diana realise something else remained, an unknown, unsaid.


	21. Chapter 21

Day break and Gotham City's jagged sky line reflected the rising sun. The city's famous Gothic architecture was framed by the equally dramatic Karst landscape that surrounded it. Outside the City proper was the Estate, Wayne Manor, and several hundred feet down, there was the Cave.

An invisible Plane folded its wings, collapsing in on itself returning to the more ancient shape of the mystical Talaria. This origami like metamorphosis revealed for a split second as magical energy coursed through the ghostly glassy shapes, flashing smaller until there was just an ever so brief glimpse of winged sandals upon feet. Wonder Woman descended, feeling the warm air rising from the underground void. The vertical shaft was hidden in the extensive woods of the Wayne Estate Gardens surrounding the sprawling nineteenth Century Country House.

The air carried the scents of turbulent waters running across limestone, just acidic enough given millennia to dissolve the rock, creating vast caverns. Stronger smelling still was ancient deposits of guano caking the caves, the faeces of countless generations of bats. So very many night time hunters clung to the roof of this their dark consistent home. From the vertical shaft Wonder Woman flew on into a long wide chamber.

The sonics echoed around her, beyond the range of normal human hearing, the sound field marked the outer limits of the Bat Cave. An invisible net of sound keeping the hordes of bats at bay. After all it wouldn't do to live under a rain of guano from above.

Below her the squadron of various Bat Wing aircraft were parked, connected by long mechanical arms made of steel and cable to the concrete bunker sunk into the rock.

The Batman was expecting her. Heavy blast doors whirred and opened for Diana. She moved onward into the heart of this subterranean installation. Ostensibly a nuclear bunker, after all a billionaire is allowed to be eccentric enough to build a super basement. A structure capable of withstanding an extinction level event. Wayne Industries had built the basic concrete and steel shell into the rock walls. The giant Penny and the life-size Tyrannosaur had been part of that oh so eccentric playboy masquerade, as was the sunken lounge area and dance floor. These fripperies remained, as around them the Batman had added other more personal practical additions for his war on crime, such as weapon and armour racks.

And like a small boy might arrange his hot wheels, the Batmobiles were parked within robotic maintenance bays.

As she approached Wonder Woman heard a second hunters heartbeat, slow alongside measured breaths. Her divine senses fixed momentarily on the shadows. It was long enough to be forewarned, surprised and disturbed.

Bruce sat before a wall of monitors. Diana had been uncertain about Batman's motives in securing the data from Luthor Corp. After all Lex's business interests existed in direct competition to Wayne Industries in many markets. Bruce was human, but his peculiar genius made him exceptional. It made him harder to read. Diana's upbringing predisposed her to trust women and distrust male motivations.

Beyond the Computer core was an automated factory and robot populated machine shop. Bruce had told her these subsequent additions to the bunker had been installed by different sets of experienced Contractors. Such crews were well used to secrecy. To travelling blindfolded to unknown locations, given their trade of bunker builders to the usual suspects, that is paranoid oil rich dictators. In short despite being to all intents and purposes a hidden factory complex, its true function as a base for current nocturnal activity into Gotham and beyond remained Bruce's secret.

Wonder Woman alighted beside the Dark Knight.

"Good Evening Princess." He said. His fingers danced across the keys of his interface, bringing up images and data. "My analysis of the files I extracted from the Luthor Corp Server is complete.

"There were multiple levels of encryption. Lex Luthor is nothing if not thorough."

Wonder Woman nodded. She had come here to listen to Bruce's findings. Wayne had told her that he had collected a large set of information during his investigation of the ruined Metropolis Research Facility. He had not mentioned his yet unannounced visitor. Given their complicated history Diana respected his silence.

This was not the time to talk about the compilations intimate relationships created.

Distracted she thought of Superman. Batman directed her to the main screen.

"How bad is it?" She asked.

"Lex Luthor's ambitions extend beyond the militarisation of Substance K."

"That much is already clear." She observed. "Luthor's mercenaries include Red Letter Meta-Humans, they clearly employed K weapons against us in Metropolis, during the faux attack on his own installation."

Bruce's fingers twitched across the touch screen. "It's worse." He brought up pictures of young people, attached to biographies. Diana's eyes absorbed the text almost instantly.

"Great Hera." She said.

"Lex isn't content with outsourcing his goons, he's taken to training them in-house."

Diana grasped the matter. "Luthor is deliberately triggering Meta-Human-Morphis by exposing likely subjects to substance K!"

The next decrypted file came up on the Bat Cave monitor wall.

"He calls this new division Team Luthor." Batman explained, bringing up images of suited people, their faces masked, their bodies encased, looking something like an astronaut meets a medieval knight. Followed by their civilian identities, and abilities.

"Heads of Cerebus!" Diana spat. "He is taking K induced Meta-Human's and equipping them with technology given to him by the Man-hunters!"

Bruce nodded. "Double trouble. Normal Humans would be unable to survive the stresses these Man-hunter tech battle suits deliver on the pilot."

Diana frowned. She saw this to be true. "Not all his test subjects did."

Bruce nodded. There was nothing to add, the files spoke for themselves, with bold type single word conclusions – Deceased. Batman continued saying. "The contract between our notorious bald headed inventor and industrialist and the aliens was this; he would help them in their mission to steal Kryptonian science, in return they have given him technology decades – perhaps even centuries ahead of anything on Earth."

Diana frowned.

"We're talking about the means to mimic the basic Man-hunter capabilities of flight, and energy blasters."

On the main screen a video began to play. The armoured Team Luthor Operative took to the air. It was incredible to watch, and well beyond current technology.

"At the heart of these battle suits is a tiny generator" Bruce explained. "A power cell of sorts, provided by the Man-hunter's."

Diana stared at the figures on screen, it was like they had rocket boots strapped to their feet.

Wonder Woman concluded. "In effect Luthor is like a child whose toys depend on a grown up providing batteries."

"Something Lex – according to these deciphered internal emails." Bruce cycled through different documents, "complains bitterly about, and so far his attempts to backward engineer this power cell technology has been disastrous. Not that further fatalities – even among his own researchers mean he's giving up on cracking the alien technology."

"Is that even possible?"

"Given enough time... maybe." Bruce replied.

Diana reached over and scrolled through the various profiles of the surviving Team Luthor Operatives. "Each of these Meta-Human's without technological augmentation would be a significant threat individually. As a team..."

"There is more." Bruce told her, Diana could tell his familiar grim disposition was tonight thoroughly genuine.

From the shadows a lithe form processed forward.

Now a different kind of dance begins Diana thought, and she tensed for confrontation, her eyes fixed forward even as she greeted the newcomer.

"Good Evening Talia." Diana said to the daughter of the Head of the Demon, one Ra's al Ghul.

The crescent Moon rose over Cairo, through the haze and fractured city lights, Lois Lane saw the unmistakable shape of the last surviving wonder of the ancient world, the Pyramids of Giza. High above the streets, in the seclusion of this luxury hotel she waited. Illuminated by the backwash from her laptop. Lois knew she should be sleeping, resting before the challenge ahead, but she couldn't relax the train of her thoughts, like some powerful locomotive barrelling down the predetermined track to its destination, Lane found herself rehearsing her plan. "Dad would be proud." She whispered. There was no going back now, she was in this too deep.

"I knew you'd come around." Her Father had told her. "There has been a Lane in the thick of it since the Revolutionary War fighting for America."

Lois closed the computer screen, shutting her own face away, her own smile from the pages of the WGBS website, thinking I wanted the pen to be mightier than the sword, badly. Her hand fell to her Glock 10mm Auto, expertly checking a bullet was chambered, that the magazine was full. Beside her lay the clandestine diplomat bag from the American Embassy.

The night was young when Lois began her descent. Repelling down the back wall of the Hotel she dropped into the shadow of the alley. The unmarked van was empty save for the second package. Moments later a motorcycle hit the dirt, driven by a state of the art hydrogen fuel cell the black ops bike powered away silently and unlit through the night. Inside the close fitting helmet a head up display projected her course through the streets as a ghostly overlay coupled with enhanced night vision. The map was unnecessary, Lois knew where she was going, the plan was burned bright into her mind. She couldn't deny it any longer. Something had changed deep inside her psyche, the girl who had trouble spelling unnecessary, had increasingly perfect recall, and mental discipline, where she had once resented her father's military mindset, she now embraced it. Just maybe General Lane was right, just maybe Lois had finally grown up, no longer a feisty girl reporter, hired as the pretty face of the TV News in Metropolis. Her teenage rebellion, a career choice, had introduced her to Luthor, and perversely that relationship made her an ideal Operative. Lois had embraced the very military she had run away from.

Her erstwhile boyfriend had concealed his reluctance well, her insistence on accompanying him to Egypt had irritated Lex, Lois had pushed as hard as she dared, which wasn't much at all. Luthor was not used to tolerating contrary opinions.

From her head up display she could see the signature of the transponder she had secreted onto Lex's person. It was a little over ten miles from the centre of Cairo to the feet of the Lion carved from the bedrock of the Gaza Plain.

Lois brought the silent cycle to a halt. Ahead Lex's limousine was parked close to the Sphinx, Luthor's money bought him access to people and places, at times of his choosing, that mere mortals could not hope for. Lois was glad of one thing, Mercy Graves was no longer Luthor's bodyguard. Her exposure as a Man-hunter – an alien machine had caused Luthor no end of problems. Publicly, and politically. Personally it had meant new hired help.

Lois clung to the shadows. Where as Mercy would have been harder to circumvent, these goons were far more limited - human. Shrouded by the shadows created by the floods that lit the Sphinx's face Lane scanned the area behind the Statue.

The Egyptian Government had long been reluctant to allow investigation of certain claims regarding the Sphinx origin and purpose. Her Father had told her that the Stanford Stargate Project had confirmed the existence of hidden chambers under the Gaza Plateau. Lex Luthor's current location put that beyond a shadow of doubt.

Eagle Scout Lane scanned the ground around the base of Sphinx, the Wayne Tech night vision camera ran a series of enhancements, she paused the processing as the recently disturbed ground became highlighted revealing a series of foot prints. Following this trail Lane approached the passageway entrance sited near the Lion's left hip. Masked in shadow she waited until waiting Driver and Bodyguard stood over by the car turned briefly away. In a fluid motion she slipped through the small opening into the wider space below.

Here the night vision display became essential. Following the dusty prints Lois slipped deeper into the void in the Limestone, some part natural, others carved to enlarge the already existing fissure. Reports stated this shaft leads to dead end below the water table. However Luthor's position indicated that another unknown or at least unacknowledged passageway was accessible from this one.

In the darkness Lois's augmented head up display revealed an open door, the rock wall was cracked open, apparently along natural fault lines. Yet she guessed that was part of the illusion, the camouflage. Proceeding into the darkness the rude tunnel gave way to perfectly square shaft. Her gut began to churn. Something felt wrong about this.

There was a brief flash as her helmet electronics adjusted to the sudden switch to artificial light, and she crouched low instinctively. From her elevated position relative to the large square chambers lower floor, Lois found herself peering through modern stainless steel walkway, a balcony that ran around the ceiling of the vault. Beneath the stark modern fittings contrasted with the beautifully executed stone carvings.

Lois found her breath caught in her throat. Her electronics had gone dead. She was cut off from her satellite feed.

Somewhere in America General Lane would be shouting very loud right now.

Below her was Lex Luthor. "Hello Lois." He said. His smile registered triumph. He had clearly been expecting her.

Lois swore silently, angry at her failure to deceive him.

"May I introduce you to my partners." Lex said with a casual wave he began with a large bearded man with cold dark piercing eyes. "Vandal Savage, Chief among the Illuminate."

Luthor gestured to a second leaner figure with a pointed beard and moustache, and Arabic features. "Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's Head of the League of Assassins." Then to a dark skinned but grey haired waspish man. "This is the eminent Professor Anton Hastor, and on his left in the red garb of his sect the noble Abbot Louis Du Bois."

Lois felt rather than saw the eyes hidden behind the hood of the Monks vestments, his white chin was unnaturally pale, as were his long claw like hands.

Lex turned at last to the stunning woman on his left. She seemed to glow, and her hair danced in a non existent breeze. "And this is the Lady Circe."

"Enough theatre." Savage growled. "Time to deliver Luthor."

Lex nodded. "Uplink has been appropriated, re-engaging communication with Satellite." Luthor's fingers punched at the tablet computer in his hand. "General Lane, this is Lex Luthor speaking on behalf of _Terra First._ We have a proposition for you and your Commander in Chief."


	22. Chapter 22

Lois stood on the cold metal of the stainless platform deep beneath ancient guardian of the Giza Plain. The temperature was constant in this underground refuge. Yet she shivered. Like a child again cold and alone, in yet another strange bed, another foreign billet.

The readings from her helmet were screwy, it was like trying to watch scrambled cable. The feedback hiss made her feel sick, dizzy. Lois remembered suffering just like this back at Lex's apartment not long after he'd given her that incredible emerald collar. The same one the Amazon Princess had taken from her neck. Angry she cast aside the kevlar head piece, and let her long dark auburn hair cascade. Like a warning of snow in an open fire, Lois's eyes burned violet and angry. Yes she was cold again. This time it was the cold certainty of just vengeance.

Luthor smiled as the black ops Helmet banged and smacked its way down the metal stairway. It sat spinning on the polished limestone floor.

Lex spoke to an invisible audience, his words relayed electronically across the Atlantic to Washington DC.

"I am Lex Luthor I have a plan." He looked up a Lois. If he saw her anger it didn't register in his face, rather he flashed his well-worn smile, full of the laughter of confidence and triumph.

"General Lane I am man of my word, a man of industry – I am above all a man of this planet."

Around about him the men and the woman Circe banged the conference table in agreement.

"We are collectively as a species threatened from without by an aeon lasting alien war, a fight that predates even our earliest ancestors."

"One in which you have taken sides." Sam Lane's voice reverberated through the conference phone's speakers.

Lois reacted to the stern voice of her Father, like a good soldier she stood ready. Suddenly the room seemed smaller. Her rage was concentrated on her former boyfriend. Things seemed suddenly simple.

"I have General." Lex paused. He smiled again. "Mr President."

Lois grasped the significance. The Whitehouse had been patched into the line, and somehow Terra First knew it.

"The side I have taken is Earth First and Foremost and nothing but my home world. Always."

Lois heard her Father laugh. It was a cold sound. She shared his anger. It was one with her own.

"It didn't look that way in Metropolis." The General told Luthor.

"Appearances can be deceptive." Ra al Ghul interjected. His voice was harsh but rich. "For example in reality Earth is a new world in this great void of Space. There are Alien nations that are so very old, and their enmities are as deep as they are ancient."

"If we are not careful we will be caught up in them." Professor Hastor added.

Luthor continued saying. "Ever since the incident in Kansas, with the arrival of Substance K, just twenty five years ago, the very fabric of humanity has been fundamentally altered. As a species we are being divided, some of us are evolving into... something else. Metahumans - something alien to our world. And this process is going on in our streets, in our homes, it is going on unchecked, and unmonitored - despite my best efforts, I might add.

His voice quiet her father replied, saying. "Which weren't good enough Lex, that's why I was given your job."

Luthor scowled. His retort was silenced before he could voice it.

"Mr President, General Lane." Vandal Savage spoke, his countenance was like that of an angry bear, his raised hand stayed Lex Luthor, and the genius industrialist and inventor slumped angrily into his seat like a sullen child.

Lois realised things were not as they first seemed. Luthor was in fact a junior member of this society.

It was Savage who was the senior here. His voice was deep and menacing. "Long before there was this self-styled Justice League, populated by Aliens and Meteor Freaks, there was _this_ _council_."

"And who are you?" The General's voice demanded over the speakers.

Savage laughed. "We are the Immortals. We are those sons and daughters of _this world_, who by accident or magical science have defied death. For millennia, _I_ Vandal Savage have walked this Earth. In the passing centuries I have met others who have joined me at my table; I saw the rise and fall of Atlantis. I rode with Alexander when he conquered his world, and with the Khan as his Mongol Hordes swept all before him. I suggested to my good friend Henry Ford that the future wasn't a faster horse, but it was in automobiles."

"You're claiming to be immortal? More than that - a King Maker?" Sam Lane concluded. Lois recognised the incredulity in her father's voice.

Savage laughed long and hard. "Look at the video feed from your own operative, your own daughter. This is the Atlantean Hall of Records. Hidden for centuries under the Sphinx. Secret Knowledge is my stock in trade."

Finally a familiar rich baritone came over the line.

"What are you bringing to the table?"

Savage waved his hand and the woman Circe nodded. Her haunting feminine voice answered the President.

"The United States government knows all too well that strange circumstances make strange bedfellows.

"I lay down with devil so we might take from the pillow talk his secrets. And so we have. With luck and industry _Terra First_ can help the United States of America leap forward decades ahead of its competitors technologically thanks to backward-engineering of alien science."

"You've taken sides." General Lane stated.

"So has the Justice League." Professor Hastor answered. Adding. "They have taken the side of the Lanterns – counting one of them as a member. Plainly and this is a mistake."

Hastor continued his argument.

"Unless you wish the United States, the Earth, to answer to the self-styled Guardians of the Universe and their appointed Police Force – the Green Lantern Corps?

"That is the question for Washington – are you ready to welcome an alien force occupation with its own system of laws imposed by Green Lanterns Will?"

Luthor lent forward. "Making Peace with the Manhunters is not only smart; it is the only choice on the table. General Lane these Androids have been here in disguise waiting and watching - _not interfering_ - for a thousand years.

"Can you say the same for this Superman or this Wonder Woman. Certainly not the Green Lanterns.

"The Manhunters aren't going anywhere, and as machines they do not pose a biological threat to the integrity of the human species, unlike the Humanoid Aliens and unpredictable Metahumans."

Lois had heard enough. Memories of the incursion by the Androids into Metropolis were strong in her mind. As she jumped over the rail and swung outward, Lois thought of _Terry Voigt_ her cameraman, she remembered how he had died, and worse, what had happened afterwards. Her heart beat sounded like a bass drum, the rhythm slow and brutal. Blood rushed through her veins, she felt alive, both angry and elated, it was primal almost sexual, she was falling, and then tumbling in the old school sense of the word. She was in control. She was all Circus, brave and bold, an acrobat. A soldier. The room seemed smaller still. She was a child training on the Judo Mat. A teen acquiring a Black Belt in Karate. All her knowledge and experience was distilled into this moment. Driving against Luthor, with the flat of her heel, she forced him back against the smooth limestone wall.

There was a crack as he struck the polished stone of the chamber of secrets.

"Bitch." He spat blood.

"I see that you're one of them now." Savage laughed behind her.

The woman Circe looked on with contemptuous smile. "She is quite splendid. Our boy is more than capable."

"Excellent work." Hastor hissed. "I have not seen it's like since the days of Atlantis."

Lois wasn't listening; she didn't stop to consider them. She ground Lex's bald head into the limestone, her forearm, vice like, into his windpipe. Luthor gasped a laugh despite her. A hoarse whisper, his eyes wide, full of glee, and desire.

Seeing him leer at her brought Lois back from the brink. It was a moment of realisation.

"What have you done to me?" Lois demanded.

"Welcome to ranks of the Meteor Freaks." Lex replied.

Lois Lane connected the pieces of information. She had a talent for that; she saw patterns, interconnectivity intuitively. A skill that had served her well as a reporter. "The Emerald Necklace, it _was_ substance K."

Lex was covered in blood. Head wounds bled profusely. Lois saw behind the veil, finally, glimpses of the real man behind the mask of civility were nought compared to the reality laid bare. Luthor was a cold emotionless psychopath.

"That pain you feel is a consequence of natural adrenaline coursing through your K saturated system. Exposure to substance K will kill the average human, some sooner that others - but exceptional individuals."

Luthor paused with a wide smile. "Persons predisposed to heroism and self-sacrifice - in these individuals other side effects can occur."

Lois stepped back.

"Of course," Luthor continued, "these benefits come at a price."

Lois staggered as she gasped in agony. Her head felt like it was going to explode.

"And painful as that price is, there is at least the comfort of knowing it won't last long. Death comes quickly."

"Why?" Lois collapsed to her knees. Luthor stepped away from the wall. "Why kill me?" She asked.

"Oh my dear pretty thing, don't be so silly. I haven't killed you – not yet. I have developed a treatment; it will take away your pain, and leave all the benefits in place. It will prolong your life – perhaps even long enough for you to grow old."

"Why?"

"Provided you take your place in Team Luthor."

"Luthor!" The General's voice interrupted.

Vandal Savage relaxed, bringing his feet on the table, he lounged back into his chair. "The United States has a simple choice to make." He said.

There was a brief silence from Washington. Finally the Commander in Chief spoke.

"Why should we ally ourselves with the Machines?" The President asked.

"Because they are here. Because they will win." Savage said. "Because they are machines who have no reason to envy us this habitable world. Because they are already Earth's allies."

"I will have to consider this further." The President evaded.

"Of course." Savage made a gesture as he spoke.

There was a burst of static, painful in Lois's ears. For a moment there was blackness. Then sight returning Lois saw that Luthor now stood directly over her. He said. "Perhaps a demonstration by Team Luthor will prove persuasive?" His hand caressed her hair. "There are many the advantages an alliance with Terra First will deliver."

"No." Lois gasped, but her voice was an almost silent whisper.

The grim and silent Abbot Louis Du Bois spoke at last. His voice was like the grave, cold and earthy. He appeared beside her like a ghost. "Save your strength child. The line to Washington has been closed."

Lois looked up at Lex. "Why?"

However it was the Red Abbot that answered her. Dubois smiled, revealing his fangs. "The same reason every one joins our cause. Immortality."


	23. Chapter 23

There was little to be said between Diana and Dog. The wind blew softly through the trees as they walked, hunters together in deep green of Themyscira's virgin forest. Words were superfluous. It was all about motion, measured and near silent. A twitch was a call, a pause a shout or a bark – look out, look there!

Teeming with life, from untold numbers of microscopic to macroscopic, from the tiniest to the mighty, and strangest of all the mythical. These rolling hills were also home to the animals of romance and magic. This paradise was a fantastic creature Island reserve, the last sanctuary for beasts forged in the distant primal fires of Atlantis at the hands of the Homo-magi. Wizard breeders of people and animals infused by magic. Impossible chimeras. Regal Griffin rode above, and wise Centaur marshalled the ground below.

For the Hound from Kryptonopolis it was a place full of excitement and danger. Not every magical creature was automatically hazardous, magic in and of itself was not a threat to the pup born of science. A knife is a blunt weapon unless it is intentionally sharpened by a skilled hand. A snake has no bite without venom. So it was here. Enchanted claws that could cut diamonds or teeth with a poisonous bite to fell a Titan of old belonged to a precious few.

In the midst of wild Themyscira Diana knew Krypto must learn to be circumspect. Sure an invulnerable battle tank could easily barge a path splintering the mightiest trees, but it could also be stopped in its tracks by a hidden mine. So the young dog of Steel must tread lightly, lest by felling a tree they might disturb a magically camouflaged Harpies nest.

As they ran together the alien animal processed the wonder of his environment. Krypto learned the limitations of his senses. His leash an unbreakable golden cord that communicated the avatar of truths will. He could bound forward faster than a speeding bullet, and more powerful than a fleet of locomotives, he could stretch the gilded line into the distant horizon in an instant of time. Then with gentle but firm hand and voice of dominance, the mistress of the lariat called him back.

In the next moment he was by her heel. The next second his countenance changed. Krypto bared his teeth and his fur bristled. His eyes flashed and burned red.

Rising from the green shadows was a beast of man, ruddy, hairy, bearded, a lion skin hung over his shoulders, a leather thong hid his modesty. Battered sandals clad his feet. A rude club clasped in hand.

"Heracles?" Diana mouthed the name; the whisper of disbelief fell from her lips.

The Demi-god stood tall a giant of man, brutish, his skin soiled, his hair matted. The stench of blood clung to him, fresh iron red dripped from thick fingers, other black and foul, older stained his skin and furs. A bright smile like the moon in the night flashed from beneath his hairy lips.

"It cannot be." Diana gasped. In a moment a lifetime of oral histories.

The Rapist.

Her sisters still raw memories of the bloody betrayal that had seen old Themyscira sacked and ruined, and her daughters the Amazon's enslaved, then divided and separated from each other, and the world. A divisive history. Fractures that even now were still being healed.

Nonchalantly the Warrior tossed his club across his shoulder.

"Your mother found me alluring – why not you Diana?"

Her Roman name slipped too easily from his mouth, his pronunciation flawless.

"You no longer walk the Earth." Diana gasped. Truth was on her side.

Beside Wonder Woman the Hound from Kryptonopolis growled. Could it be Krypto saw something she could not?

"Appears that I do." The son of Zeus laughed. His voice deep like thunder.

Diana felt Krypto strain at the leash. Through the fiery gold of Gaia, reforged in Hestia's fires Wonder Woman understood. She glimpsed through alien super attuned senses a dogs-eye view of the figure before her.

There was old magic here, shifting and changing reality, but through this cloak of magic woven to fool the primary sense of humanity – her eyes. To Krypto's enhanced senses there was also aroma, for him scents painted a picture all of their own. The stink oozed from beneath magic veil like mist. It took shape in her mind through the golden Lasso's leash, forming the unmistakable metal frame of a Manhunter Android. The Lantern-Battery shaped void in the robots chest was filled by some unearthly fire, that burned with a star like intensity, so hot that the Manhunters super structure glowed red. This was not Heraclies, but an infernal union of magic and machine.

"Faux Fiend." She spat. She loosed the Hound, and her Lasso became a whip in her hand as she wrenched the club from the things hand. Wonder Woman launched a punch through the magic aura at the chameleon machine. The old Forest of Themysicra exploded around them as the red hot machine smashed through the wooded hillside. Like an incendiary shell spreading fire in his path. Into the rock of the Island. There from newly made fire pit rose the machine embolden by magic the hot metal shone and flowed like water. A giant, far taller still emerged from the crater. An ancient visage remade in alien alloy.

"So this is modern woman?" He laughed. "So bold as to strike down the gods themselves?

"Foolish child. Did you think me some lickspittle from my treacherous son's loins? I am their progenitor. I am Cronus."

* * *

The President sucked on his cigarette. He had tried to quit, conscious of the message his addiction might send. Tonight he needed the nicotine fix. His face creased with worry. Grey hairs flecked his once dark locks.

The Rose Garden was cold in the night air, but General Lane showed no sign of discomfort. If he had an opinion on tobacco he kept that to himself. Like so much. He was waiting.

The President couldn't imagine being so calm if one of his daughters was lost – in harm's way.

"Luthor and his friends. They are Legion of Doom mongers." The President said exhaling. "Predicting the 'end is nigh!' And your daughter is up the proverbial creek, with our best laid plans with her."

He looked across at the General, wondering if he'd rise to the bait.

A frown flickered across the stern soldier's brow. A brief display of potential emotion. "Luthor and his Terra First group made a compelling argument."

The President watched his breath make fire, red in the dark. He wasn't sure where Lane stood. The General was loyal to the flag, and a pragmatist. So he asked him.

"Making deals with the devil?"

"Some would say - at least Luthor's our devil." Lane observed. "He's both human and an American."

"A policy that hasn't always served America well."

Lane nodded. "No argument here."

"It seemed otherwise."

"Art of War, Mr President. Keep your friends close – and your enemies closer."

"Your daughter?"

"We both understood the risks."

Crushing the cigarette butt under his heel the President asked. "You saw the report on the Metropolis incident – the cost of rebuilding?"

Lane nodded.

"Then I have to wonder with friends like the Justice League – who needs enemies?"

The President shook his head. "However the bright and colourful Superhero Circus has captured the attention of the Media and the Public."

"America's brightest religion is the cult of celebrity." Lane stated.

"Meanwhile the Atlanteans and the Amazons have made a formal approach to the United Nations, and informally through the League."

The President knew his General had been briefed. Sam Lane replied. "Earth's own are making an offer not dissimilar to Terra First – to share advanced technology."

"But not weapons." The General observed.

The President nodded. "I'm not comfortable with the idea of self-styled galactic Police Force. It's difficult dealing the idea of international law, and say the court at the Hague."

"The Lantern Corps. That has a military sound to it."

"Our own history has salutary lessons for us, that is when a vastly superior and advanced society meets a more primitive culture – it rarely ends well."

"The Green Lantern is but one of the Justice League."

"Who are self-appointed." The President looked to the stars. "Thing is General we're committed to remain fifty years ahead of the opposition militarily. Which here on planet Earth isn't a huge leap of imagination. However that star spangled uncharted wild frontier has natives, perhaps would be colonists. These nations – races, are fifty million years and more ahead of us. This time we're the Indians. They are the cowboys."

* * *

"_No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water_. " Richard Burton's unmistakable baritone echoed from the past. The eight track cassette of Jeff Wayne's adaptation of HG Wells's War of the Worlds turned in the player. Pete Ross relaxed in the front seat of Clark Kent's charger. He'd heard his onetime best buddy was back in town, and he'd gravitated to the classic car as part of the normal ritual of male bonding involving sports and gasoline. Ross pulled the Car over a few miles outside town, ready to turn back to the Kent farm.

"_Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."_

The music struck up it's memorable beat. "Love how this starts." Pete said. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, to the to the synth pop sound that was so cutting edge in 1976.

Pete had been something of an outsider; mixed race in a conservative small town in Kansas played a part in that. Peter Ross senior had married an African American. A distinction had given the adopted son of Martha and Jonathan Kent common ground of being different with Pete.

As the fiddles rang higher, the bass line thumped hard through the sympathetically fitted modern speakers.

"So what's new Cowboy?" Pete asked heading back to Smallville. It was an innocent question.

Where to begin Clark thought. "I'm dating again." He said. A princess that can fly – he didn't say.

"Good Clark. We all miss Lana, but life goes on. Me, I'm still sober. I even heard from Chloe... Clark seriously – why the face? C'mon, I've been three years drug free."

Superman's eyes saw further than the one time roadie, his ears heard the sound of the approaching craft. Moments later they were both rocked bodily by the roar of it's passing. Of course Clark hadn't been shocked by his old school friend's sobriety. Rather the sound of approaching space craft dropping through the atmosphere, displacing air and creating a sonic boom high in the stratosphere. The net effect was like a storm front that now struck the town with the violence that the inhabitants of Tornado alley were all too familiar with.

His hands grabbed the body of the car. In that moment extending his superhuman energy through the body of the automobile. The Dodge Charger shook, it rose at an angle from the pavement, but Superman flew it and them through the onslaught as above them the bulbous behemoth like a bloated whale covered with giant barnacles swept overhead.

"..._millions miles of void, invisibly hurtling toward us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth_." Burton narrated. Pan Pipes played as the wind and dust whistled around them. Clark's fingers turned the player off. The coincidence was eerie.

"Stay with the car Pete."

"What do you mean?" Ross asked, but Clark was already gone.

Superman climbed above the craft as it swung in a lazy arc, its great speed spent, it swung low over the growing crops, bending the stalks in the wash from the space craft's passing.

Why he wondered would such a vast vehicle come to this part of rural America. The city sized vessel defied gravity, whilst generating its own weather pattern, so enormous its shadow blotted out the sun and the sky. The artificial eclipse brought darkness, and raging winds. Then under the behemoth there was calm. The space craft hung in the air a metal alien landscape suspended over Kansas.

Protuberances extending from the vehicles belly, emerging from the blistered skin, like twitching tendrils they glowed illuminating the fields below.

Superman grasped the living Manhunter battleships intentions – at least broadly. Twenty five years ago an event had put Smallville on the map. The Meteor Shower.

He accelerated towards the metal skinned beast.

Then the ground twitched, teased it seemed by the tendrils glimmering search lights. Bursting from the soil came the shards of Kryptonite that still remained deep in the loam. The fragments of his lost world that the military and Luthor Corp hadn't harvested. Today the Manhunters reclaimed them.

Around the world came the chatter. The electronic scream. The echoes of other Leviathans from deep space entering the Earth's atmosphere. The radio broadcasts tallied with the distant booms. This was a full scale invasion.

Over the airwaves in the multiplicity of languages the Alien craft spoke.

"People of Earth. We are the Alliance. Please do not be alarmed. We are here as your liberators. We are here to protect you. Your planet has been selected by the Green Lantern Corps for annexation. Alien sleeper Agents are masquerading as your defenders. They have infected some of you. They have created false gods for you to follow.

"Do not be deceived.

"You have no reason to fear us. Soon you will be freed from this Alien and Metahuman conspiracy to enslave you. Do not fear. Alliance forces will protect you and your children. No evil escapes us.

"No man escapes the Manhunters."


	24. Chapter 24

The giant mechanism that burned with infernal old magic belonging to the age of Titans towered over the trees of Themyscira.

"Cronus!" Diana called out sending her gilded lariat faster than her shout could carry, a lightning fast flash of gold, followed by a crack like thunder, the unbreakable line wrapped itself around the mechanical titan's parody of a human form. Like a cross between skinless anatomical drawing hammered into a partial medieval suit of armour, in the gaps mercurial metal cabling writhed like a living thing, as if the machine was comprised of electric serpents.

Wonder Woman pressed herself to the Earth, binding herself to the world. "Gaia give me sure footing."

Metal screamed as like a garrotte the wire of her lasso tightened into the giant form of Cronus. In this moment many things happened.

Beyond the battle, from out of the trees came the magical creatures. Chiron the Centaur led his fellow Warrior Monks, with great speed and agility many sets of hooves pounded the forest floor. An aesthetic hermitage, each having forsworn the lusty life of the Satyr for martial and spiritual discipline.

Themyscira granted them sanctuary and solitude in exchange asking only that they bare arms in the islands defence.

In their human hands tall long bows made of Themyscira's Silvered birchwood, that sparkled like polished metal and fired arrows forged by Hephaestus for Apollo. Fiery in the sunlight these bolts flew towards the magically driven android. Piercing the alloy skin with the scream of metal on metal before hot plasma burst like arterial blood from countless relative pin prick sized wounds on the giant machine.

From above flew Griffin, the guardians from Hippolyta's stable. Their claws magically honed, so sharp that each could rend apart Adamant metal, and flying with them fire-breathing Chimera.

From gaping lions maws, flame-throwing muzzles directed white hot plumes into the face of the old god reborn a machine.

No metal, even that first forged on the distant world of Oa, could withstand the magic.

Yet even as the metal ran white hot it reformed. An older magic still bound this machine, powered it, and gave it purpose, the god Cronus.

Further out, riding on the horizon came the Amazons. Mounted on the back of Pegasi, Diana's elder sisters rode. Closing the distance from the Royal Stables at a magical pace. In the far distance the horn of war rang loud across the white marble citadels. A call to arms.

In this same moment Diana connected once more with the consciousness of the ancient god Cronus.

The magical lasso was a conduit between her and Cronus. Hate distilled in long isolation bubbled from the depths of his being. His memories flowed through the golden lasso of truth. As did the certainty that the old god did so willingly. His very thoughts, the substance of his mind, his personality; his soul, was an attack.

He wanted Diana to experience the truth.

Zeus rising up from below, at his right hand the mighty watery fist of Posideon wrenches Cronus's sword arm toward the bitter god-son. At his left his shield is broken and it burns with a dark fire, as the red hot iron hands of Hades grip his other arm, pulling him in the opposite direction.

All the while Earth below glimmers like a precious jewel. Space above and beyond. The space between realms. There should have been no sound. Here in Cronus's memories the airless void is filled with wailing cheer of delight, the song of his wife, his betrayer, Rhea rises over the mother Gaia. From beneath, from the shadows came his youngest son, caught in his hand the same sickle that Cronus had wielded in his youth. Son against his father, so the bloody history of the gods is repeated. Zeus rises, vertical lightning. He cuts Cronus, opening him up from crotch to throat, carving the loose flesh from his loins, emasculating, disembowelling, forcing the curved blade upward decapitating. Cronus's body snaps and tears, his arms leave his shoulders still clasped firmly by the young gods. Blood rains back to the world. Fire bursts from within him and consumes his corpse. Leaving only dust.

Death is a beginning.

"Do you feel it Amazon. The Dark?" Cronus boomed. "Loneliness, emptiness."

Diana shook, her skin glowed red with the strain, glistening with effort as she drew on the golden line, the metal body of the titan groaned, as Wonder Woman crushed the broad torso, cutting into it as much as she drew the machine to her. Suddenly she felt another hand take the lariat. No, she realised not a hand, but a mouth. Krypto growled as he dragged the golden lasso, pulling it like some great chew toy, his feet gripped thin air, by extension he like Diana was tapping into the very mass of the Earth herself, she by magic, he by the virtue of his highly evolved alien physiology.

As the Hound of Kryptonopolis growled and tugged. Diana screamed "Nyx."

It was a cry of defiance, and wisdom. Wonder Woman could see the ancient goddess, born of Chaos, the goddess of the night, the shadow, of the above and beyond – of space, of dark matter. Nyx, dark and beautiful, had imprisoned the old god, whisking his soul far away from Earth, far from the other-world of Olympus. Far out into the distant cosmos. Countless millennia inside a silent prison – her darkest cave. The solitary confinement of the former King of the gods.

Diana thought is it any wonder Cronus returns insane?

"Zeus had thought it impossible. How could anyone find me." Cronus told her.

He laughed even as his body fell into two, torn apart by her Lasso, as together she and the superdog pulled him down. Cronus's giant android form fell. Twinkling from a thousand fires burning from the wounds made by the Centaurs, punctured by their silver arrows. Cronus crashed to the ground. The metal twisted in Chimera Flame. Lances fell on him from above, thrown by her sisters. Each struck with all the force of a thunderbolt. Tearing into the broken form.

Cronus's head rose from the earth. Dirt, rocks, broken trees, fell around Diana and Krypto like rain.

She looked at the broken titan. Already tendrils of steel snapped like live wires seeking to reconnect the two halves once more, to repair. Diana leapt above him, his right hand grasped for her, flashing through the air. Smashing into a small white dog. A second gained. Krypto barked, it was like thunder. The ground shook, Diana wasn't looking around about her, her hunters eye was fixed on the prey.

Wonder Woman cast her tiara from her head in a slicing flight through the sparking connections severing them once more.

The Hound of Kryptonopolis seized them ripping in blur of motion the sparking cables from the midst of the fallen machine.

"Why come here?" Diana demanded. Staring into the giant eyes as the torso of the titan raised itself as best it might. Despite the attack, each half was still trying to reform, change, rebuild as Manhunter technology was able to do.

"Daughter!" Came the cry from the Queen. Hippolyta's arm dispatched the token, a bronze coin bearing the face of Athena, on the reverse an sacred Owl rode on the back of Eagle.

Wonder Woman caught the coin in an outstretched hand.

"I have the Queens Shilling." She whispered. Mist clothed her in a whirlwind, spinning around her like a tornado, in that moment clothing her in the full armour of Athena goddess of War. The fiery helm on her head, the collar decorated with snakes and owls, a plate which jointed to the blade tipped shoulders guards. These extended across her back over the scapula to the lower Corset Cuirass. Grieves armoured her legs.

The face of Cronus exploded. Fire and light engulfed her as the sky above the island was painted red by the tower of flame, a geyser of light.

Wonder Woman flew skyward. Hundred of feet in fractions of second. There she faced Cronus embodied in the flames. His figure man sized once more, having left behind the majority of the machine body to it's own devices.

The Manhunter construct was on the face of it broken, but each piece like a hydra was reforming, building itself into some terrifying engine of war.

It was far from over.

The sky stayed red. It was magic. Old and powerful, and Cronus was laughing.

This was another face of the god of the golden age. His skin shone like the precious metal.

"Still a machine." Diana hissed. It made sense to her. The Man-hunters had found the disembodied Cronus. They had given him a body like theirs, and his magic had given that machine life.

The implication of such a contract made her blood run cold.

Her bracelets crossed, the extend vambraces of the aegis of Zeus was even this enough magic to stand against this father of the gods.

"I was without form. Natural procreation forever denied me." Cronus said as if guessing her thoughts. Extending ten golden fingers, palms open, as if pleading to her.

"Zeus never counted on the Oa. Their Machines never die. They go on forever. Given all the time in the universe, they scouted the darkest corners, the farthest reaches of the cosmos, the Man-Hunters found me."

"I am pleased for both of you." Diana answered. Her Sword had already struck his brilliant gold body, her hands moving faster than her words, the substance of the old god was now like liquid metal. The blade sent a golden rain into the air. It laughed too. With the blade protruding between his molten shoulder blades, Cronus's fingers had wrapped themselves around her wrists. She bucked and tore at his touch, it was like fighting with water. Battling rain.

The truth struck Wonder Woman – the reason behind the old god's madness. She felt the invisible wings that kept her aloft, gliding on the air around about them. The gift of the gods, of Hermes, the mythical Talaria, winged sandals, a fiery chariot of light, a invisible plane, the means to travel.

It had all been about this.

"I am the Champion of Olympus." Diana cried out defiant.

Cronus's golden face came close to hers.

"You are the key to Olympus." He told her.

The sky darkened still deeper, taking on the colour purple, like a hideous bruise across the heavens.

It is time that I paid my children a visit. I am overdue, don't you think?" Cronus asked.

His grip was magical. At the same time it was mechanical. In a constant state of flux, rebuilding itself on the atomic scale. Cronus had deciphered the magic that possessed the Talaria, and now he was using Wonder Woman to open a rift into the other dimension where the Olympians dwelt.

She lashed out smashing the golden god's face like soft yellow clay, as her fiery helm, Athena's gift, head butted Cronus.

Krypto was beside her, his barks were constant, she looked up to determine what the dog had seen. Before the broad smile could reform itself she saw the full extent of Cronus's plan.

The rift was not just a door into the Olympian realm, it was a bridge. Themyscira sat between worlds, both in the Earth, and yet also outside it. Placed between the realm of Hades below and the scared mountain above. Cronus had opened a rift that bridged all three.

Krypto had seen, heard, smelled them. Cronus had summoned the machines from Man's World, or more accurately from far beyond Man's World to cross over. Man-Hunters androids in their living space ships, crossed the void passing over Themyscira. Diana saw they were not stopping, instead the Manhunters were bound for Olympus.

Cronus laughed. As below the Machine engaged her sisters, and their allies, the god of the golden age shot upwards into the rift.

"Go and find Kal." Diana told Krypto. "Quick, good dog." She gasped, as she struck down a tentacled arm from the machine below.

Krypto accelerated away, using the rift Cronus had opened. Diana watched him disappear as she smashed into the war engines that had sprouted from Cronus's machine titan body. Vehicles of destruction that threatened the verdant forests of her paradise home.

As the Hound of Kryptonopolis skimmed the Atlantic ocean on the other side of the rift, he howled in rage, as his senses were assaulted. Earth had been invaded.


	25. Chapter 25

High above the Earth hidden within the cloaked crystal citadel that was the Man of Tomorrow's orbiting Fortress the green form of the original Manhunter from Mars was a blur of activity. Solid walls were no barrier to the insubstantial at will changeling, and her work was completed speedily, only the scale of the Fortress ensured that it was also time consuming. For Jo the process of integrating the disparate technologies from Krypton, long lost Mars, and Earth was a fitting testament to the Justice Leagues nature. It was shortly after the work was completed that the first of the Manhunters invasion fleet dropped out Hyper Space. Patching herself in the neural network of the Crystal Station's Artificial Intelligent systems, Jo piggybacked her awareness on the hybrid matrix that linked Martian telepathy to Kryptonian sensors, and trans-dimensional broadcast technology, to the stone age silicon electronics of Earth. The earwigs, in ear communication devices, enabled her telepathic link, now unfettered by simple constraints of location and geography. Wherever any of League was, be they near of far, Jo could reach them with her mind. The Martian Manhunter found Diana in Themyscira, she heard her cry to Krypto, to find Kal, and she shuddered as Wonder Woman shared the truth she had learned through the golden lasso from Cronus. The ultimate aim of the old god's alliance with the machines. It was almost too horrible to conceive.

-8-

The Manhunter's Living Spaceship, cast a metropolis sized shadow across the plains of Kansas, bringing with it an unnatural night. It's opalescent shell was alive with flickering and pulsing flashes of colour. Twinkling lights that mimicked the starry night sky. Above and rising, the full height of the beast was lost in the clouds punctuated by rainbows of bioluminescent light arching through the turbulent wake above the great plains.

Superman was but a speck. Insignificant as flea against a whale, flying faster than a speeding bullet toward the iridescent carapace. Then like a needle drill the Man of Steel dove into the Leviathan with surgical precision. He bore through the living tissue of the space faring giant into the cavernous voids within.

The immensity of the beast tasked his super senses. Depth, height, breadth, the living ship was as vast as Metropolis and infinitely more complex. Yet the basic superstructure followed the pattern of the much smaller vessel he had encountered previously. The two related organisms shared a common ancestor, their biology followed a plan. The neural network was alive with electrical impulses, energies visible to the Man of Tomorrows highly evolved senses, and following the energy paths Superman's x-ray like vision identified the largest concentration of neuron like structures. The animals nerve centre, situated at the heart of the living vessel. Moments later he emerged in a central chamber, a void that was above this brain core. Behind him the broken shell of the interior void oozed, coagulating like a wound.

The belly of the beast was an auditorium of pearl like splendour. Shining shell walls towered and tapered curving upwards. Beyond the chamber narrowed towards the heart of the Leviathan Space craft, and it was here Superman snapped still, the sound of his arrival following after him, an auditory shadow.

As the crack echoed around the empty space, a familiar face greeted not the Man of Steel, but rather the Cowboy he had been. "Hello Clark."

Lana looked at him with the same passionate green eyes, twinkling emerald gems, a smattering of freckles and mane of fine auburn hair.

"I'm sorry."

"How?" Superman asked his voice quiet, his stance statue like. His superhuman synapses shocked, his mind dumbfounded. This didn't make any sense. His beloved wife was dead and buried.

"I'm sorry I left you." Lana said.

This had to be a cruel hoax, and yet he heard her heart beat, her blood pulse. Lana took breath, just like a living being.

"Does the evidence of your senses confound you Kryptonian?"

Superman for a moment had been Clark Kent, Farmer, but a grieving husband. This second voice concentrated Superman's mind once more. He turned all his amazing faculties to bare on the speaker.

"Doctor Whitney?" Superman observed.

"In the flesh." Replied the white haired man. Adding. "As it were."

Whitney's tanned face was lined with the years, but it was still the same face Clark remembered peering down at him, when he had been but a boy, feverish in his bed. Whitney had been Smallville's local Doctor for all of Clark Kent's life. Today Superman knew the problems he suffered then as a sickly child were because of the concentrations of Kryptonite around Smallville, the centre of Meteor Rock County. Worse a childhood fall had driven a glass like shard of substance K in his hand, and the sickly baby had grown into poorly child. The Kryptonite embedded in his palm, an ever present poison his body had learned to suffer with, contain and eventually ignore. At least until he was exposed to a much larger piece of meteor rock in Jerome's Bar Metropolis. This life changing event had caused a violent reaction leading to the shards expulsion. Free of the poison his growth into his full potential as a Kryptonian had begun that night. Now Clark as Superman could see more deeply, the Man of Tomorrow could peer layer by layer into the man before him.

"It would appear so." Superman agreed, only to say. "But appearances are only skin deep."

"And what do you see my dear boy, what does it tell you?" Whitney asked with all the charm of a lifetime of carefully practised bed side manner.

"You are a simulacrum of a human being, albeit a very accomplished copy. Good enough to fool anything but the most invasive microscopic examination. But Doctor Whitney you are not human."

"Neither are you darling." Lana said.

Clark felt his heart skip, he could not ignore her. Lana's voice, the scent of her was all the stronger because of what he had grown to be. Superman moved back sailing through the open void of the living space craft. He could not allow himself to be trapped by this transparent attempt to influence him. His thoughts were plain. Lana died, he had buried her. His brow knitted tight and angry. His eyes flashed red. Both Lana and Doctor Whitney were in his line of sight. Superman knew he must compare them, he must establish who or what Lana truly was.

As he listened he heard a third sound, not so much a voice, nor words, but a primal noise, animal, instinctive but intelligent, it was a warning that was getting closer.

Superman hovered in the vast chambers void. "I maybe super, but I am still a man – human, even if I am not a native to earth for humanity is bigger than a single race of people."

"Cut me and don't I bleed?" Lana asked her green eyes sparkled with anger. "Didn't I bleed out on the floor of our barn darling?" She tossed her red hair back as she tilted her head, her finger pressed to her rosy cheek. She invited him to look into the socket of the eye which had been ruined by the cow's horn. It was as if she had read his mind, or at least guessed at his intentions.

Something was very wrong.

Superman examined this Lana Kent, as only a Superman could. His vision peering as an X-ray microscope, seeing the markers of repaired damage. Lana's on the face of it perfect green eye actually told a story of a fatal blow, he looked deeper still at the grey matter within her skull – just as he had assessed the Doctor moments before.

"Tell me Clark, am I real, is this me?" Lana asked. Her voice wavered, implying doubt and fear.

"Lana your body is teeming with nanites." Superman answered.

"Tiny machines?" Lana asked. "I know, or at least that's how Doctor Whitney explained what he did to me, how he brought me back." She explained. Less angry, her eyes were pleading.

"Resurrection?" Superman said his face stern, his voice deliberate.

"Consider this a gift from the Manhunters, a gesture of good faith." Whitney replied holding out his open hand. "The beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship."

"How long have you known?" Superman asked the machine camouflaged so completely as a man. "How long have you been watching me?"

Smallville's Physician for nearly thirty years shrugged off the demeanour of the small town Doctor's gentle self effacing ways, years seem to fall away from him as he stood tall resolute, like a young man wearing an older man's skin.

"From the very beginning."

"Garbage." Superman growled.

The machine man sneered. "Initially there was suspicion. Short lived. A child found abandoned close to the crash site demanded attention. It was an easy thing to replicate and replace the Whitneys.

"The Kents being good people of course made sure you were checked over at Smallville Medical. As a Manhunter I tested you for an alien heritage, and it was clear that you weren't born on Earth."

"Why not take me then – or later, why wait at all – why leave me with my parents?"

"Wait?" Whitney laughed. "You make it sound like twenty five years is a long time, how so very human of you, how short their lives are." Chuckling he shook his head. Then Doctor Whitney became stern again. "We were interested in your capacity to process solar radiation, and given that exposure to Kryptonite at the crash site depreciated your base metabolism to something close to Earth norms, it wasn't clear you possessed this ability.

"We speculated that your biological parents had meddled with your genetic make-up, that perhaps they intended you to be human-normal on earth, after all as a race your people chose the uniquely hostile world of Krypton so that they might live as normal humans, rather than supermen.

"It was decided I would observe your development to ascertain if we had been cheated of an opportunity to harness this stellar Kryptonian ability."

The Man of Steel pointed an accusatory finger. "No doubt you thought you could snatch me at any time."

"Of course." Doctor Whitney laughed. "But you never developed beyond human-normal. Intervention was deemed unnecessary – secondary plans were enacted."

"In other words you weren't able to uncover the secret of the Kryptonian solar metabolism from me, you turned to retrieving any Kryptonian technology you could." Superman concluded, saying. "And that's what this was all about. A blue print for a replacement power battery."

"Such power is _our_ right." The faux Doctor exclaimed. He paused, then with contrasting emotionless delivery, said. "The Kryptonian basal adult state is engineered to withstand extreme gravity and pressure, also radiation and other environmental toxins – while remarkable for a biological organism, it is comparable to the standard Manhunter Android specifications. However Kryptonian Science evolved the capacity to leverage Solar Radiation to manipulate mass."

Whitney added in his colloquial Kansas tone. "So oh-boy, I was surprised when suddenly you were flying." Then without emotion the human simulacrum asked. "How is it you have only just emerged as a true Super-Man?"

"You mean you don't know?" Superman replied with a wry smile. "All those years watching me – and you don't know?"

"Data indicated that Kryptonian's capacity for solar energy conversion and storage developed progressively through early childhood becoming exponential during adolescence."

"How disappointed you must have been when I appeared to be a damp squib. Human-normal."

"Superman was an unforeseen development." Whitney admitted. "Blood tests indicated high residual levels of Kryptonite, it was determined your exposure as an infant had permanently disabled your highly evolved physiology."

"How wrong you were." Superman replied, adding a loud whistle while shaking his head. "You should have looked more closely."

"Who are you to mock us." Whitney roared. The ship around him burst alight, like fireworks.

"Clark." Lana gasped shielding her eyes from the bright kaleidoscope.

"Speck. Insignificance. We are millions. Millions of years old - each of us. Together we are the Manhunters. No man escapes us."

"Very big and very old." Superman agreed. "But the small details of short lives are not insignificant."

"Biology be damned. Flesh is disorder. Flesh is death. True life is mechanical, true life is eternal."

Krypto burst through the giant vessels carapace, a white hot hurtling mass of teeth and claws, a missile, guided by a super-whistle.

His teeth locked around the throat of the faux Doctor driving him back into the shimmering pearl coloured wall.

Removing the earwig from his ear, the Man of Tomorrow's eyes flashed red as cut a hole in the floor of the chamber. Into the superstructure of the animal. Directly below was the nerve centre of the living spacecraft.

"Okay Jo." Superman said into the upturned microphone. "Krypto's running interference. Here she goes," he said dropping the device, "the key is in the hole."

Superman watched as the earwig fell into the mass of interconnecting nerve-like conduits.

A flash of white and red indicated the Whitney Simulacrum had freed itself of the dog. Krypto was already recovering for a second bite, twisting in the void of the empty chamber. The Manhunter shed his disguise, the country doctor was replaced by dark red man-machine, it however still laughed like Whitney. "This craft is but one beast of many. If you were playing for time Superman, you wasted your effort. Destroy this vessel and a thousand stand ready to take its place. Whatever you've secreted in that simple communications device can do nothing to hurt to us."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Superman replied as the Androids hand reformed into the barrel of a weapon.

"No matter." The Manhunter released a burst of green tinged plasma. Superman dived out of it's path, only to feel the unique fire's peculiar heat as it roared past him. Bring with it the pain of Kryptonite.

"You are not the only one to make use of that time. You see we are not the slow lumbering collective you imagined us to be, we are able to act quickly where necessary. In this case the collection, and weaponisation of Kryptonite from the soil of your homeland.

"Of course the plan has been in existence for only a short time – your full life span. I say full span, for your life ends now."

"You talk too much." Superman growled unleashing a flash of heat vision that melted the Androids arm. The Manhunter shrugged off the melted limb, it fell glowing red on black broken to the floor. It shrugged the shoulder above the self inflicted amputation, and a new limb began to assemble itself from the stump. "Here Superman I have access to energy from this ship, and material stored in her belly." The Man hunter leapt upwards saying. "It seems I'll have to make this up front and personal."

From his hands formed the protuberance of blade, a great sword forged in that moment, luminescent the blade shone bright green.

"Krypto stay clear." Superman waved the Hound of Kryptonopolis away from the flashing blade.

Laughing the Manhunter moved at lightning speed forcing the Man of Steel to dance away all the faster.

"The longer you wait the weaker you will become." The Android taunted. "This chamber is being flooded with Kryptonite Radiation as I speak. All I need from you is your cooperation."

"Never." Superman replied.

"Willingly or not you will surrender." The Android struck once again, his mechanical arms a blur of movement bringing the simple weapon, an edged blade together with advanced technology. Superman leapt back, his face damp with perspiration as the background radiation began to take its toll. The blade bit deep, cutting across his chest, opening up the Kryptonian suit, and letting his blood run red across the S shield and vivid blue of his costume.

Superman staggered. Krypto growled at his side, the incredible animal also felt the pain caused by the contaminated atmosphere. Superman dropped to his knees.

"Soon both of you will fall into unconsciousness."

His arm wrapped across his gaping wound the Man of Tomorrow, looked across to the woman who had meant so much in so many of his yesterdays. Lana Kent looked on impassive.

Superman couldn't know what this meant, he couldn't be certain she was even his Lana, and even if she were, he was certain her mind and will could not be her own. Either way it was the cruellest cut of all.

Superman looked up defiant, even as he bled onto the shimmering shell of the living spacecraft.

"Poor living things." The Manhunter said. "The thing about life is that there has to be death." He leant in closer, but not until we have dissected from your living flesh the secret of solar energy leverage."


	26. Chapter 26

The Batman and the Green Arrow exploited the artificial night that eclipsed the bustling modern city of Cairo to move unseen. The Manhunters vessel cast a shadow that plunged both Cairo and the adjacent Pyramids into darkness.

Above the homes and businesses hung the vast gravity defying metropolis, that was a living spacecraft. Its dark belly punctuated by lights. The vessel hovered almost scraping the top of the city's tallest building, the Cairo Tower. The slender structure recognisable by the signature organic appearance of its lattice walls. Cosmic irony as the living spacecraft above looked more artificial than the lotus plant inspired concrete spire below.

The two supreme athletes crossed the city's rooftops undetected. Two men were insignificant to the vast living ship. They were human normal, part of the cityscape. They blended in.

Their passage was a testament to brute force and determination, punctuated by slap and scrape of body armour on stone and concrete. Accompanied by the natural rhythm of exertion; the panting breath, the pumping heart. Animal noises lost in the hum and throb of a city locked down – a fear inspired self policing curfew under the shadowy envelope cast by the invader. A population fresh from revolution sat huddled far more afraid than in darkest days of dictatorship. The strong man President had been a devil they knew. The unnatural darkness of the beast above them was something else entirely.

Bruce and Oliver communicated by gesture, forgoing active technology they concentrated on being human. Staying inconsequential. Above them the city-sized living spacecraft sniffed the air, searched the streets with beams from twinkling eyes that flashed randomly across its hull. This was in and of itself strangely beautiful, but knowing what this light show represented made this very menacing. All the while the Manhunters continued to broadcast reassuring words of peace in local Arabic and English, while looking for signs of resistance, for metahumans.

Zip lines took the Verdant Venger and the Dark Knight down to street level, and to the outskirts where the urban sprawl encroached onto the Giza Plateau.

"There's our ride." Bruce indicated to a ubiquitous Toyota Hilux pickup. The sand had blasted the beater, and it was now largely deep rust red in the main, leaving patches of pale white paint in places, in the dark it looked like some misshapen brown and white cow.

The load space was half empty, centre was a tall object roped under a canvas cover, the large amount of oil cloth camouflaging what lay beneath.

Oliver laughed as the asthmatic diesel rattled noisy as it spluttered to life. Lost amongst the sounds of the city's many smoky combustion engines. "You should ship this back to Gotham, makes one helluva a Bat-mobile."

"Here I was thinking it was more equipped to be the Arrow-Car." Bruce replied briefly finding first then onto second gear down the stick shift, dirt became dust as the truck bounced towards the Pyramids.

"You have a point." Ollie smirked. "Besides irregular armies the world over know the value of a good Technical. He said patting the tired plastic dashboard. "That said I'm riding, and you're driving. Which if this is the Arrow-Car, that makes you what – chauffeur manservant side kick Batty Bruce Boy."

"Hmmph." Batman said drifting the truck through a corner at inappropriate speed. "Shouldn't you be in the back already?" He countered, pointing to the familiar iconic image of the three Gaza Pyramids.

Oliver chuckled. He began wrapping a dark green cloth around his head and face in the manner of an Arab Bedouin. "Don't favour a cloak and cowl myself, but desperate times, desperate measures." Ollie reached out of the open window. He said. "But I can't wait to unwrap another bright shiny bow... at night, an artificial night. Created by the bastard child of a giant alien space whale meets Imperial Star Destroyer."

Bruce gestured. His fingers counting down. Five to one.

On cue Ollie exited through the door in a fluid motion, scissoring his legs up and over, carrying himself in one fluid motion onto the trucks bed.

At once one hand gripped the metal side panel, the other pulled at the knotted rope and tarpaulin, with a firm tug the ties were undone. Revealing the metal and carbon cross bow. Modern materials had been used to create what still was a weapon design that would have been recognisable to a Roman Legionnaire. A modern day Ballista.

As the Toyota Technical swung around before the majestic Great Pyramid Oliver Queen flashed a basic hand torch briefly on and off in one hand.

-8-

"I'm here, ready and waiting." The Black Canary hissed. Dinah Lance peered into the night, the standard binoculars were simply well turned metal and ground and polished glass, they were an antique from the last world war. Right now she was missing her Queen Industries night scope, but the plan demanded for a technological blackout. According to Batman's inside man, the Manhunter's vessel above them was monitoring for any signature of inappropriate technology. Dinah saw a flash of light from the desert floor below her, almost lost in the dust kicked up by the beater's tyres, Oliver Queen's signal caught the Black Canary's eagle eye.

"There you are." Dinah whispered with a smile. She bounced from her perch parkouring down the ancient limestone blocks from the Great Pyramid, hustling towards the oncoming truck.

-8-

Queen checked his watch, the brand of choice for Astronauts, again simple mechanical workings told him the time to the second. Batman was driving hard to meet a deadline. "Bruce." He grunted. "I hope your source is right." Struggling he held onto the Cross Bow Ballista his body jerked with the motion of the truck across the uneven ground.

The truck slid almost coming to a stop as the Batman hand brake turned the Technical onto a different course.

"Hey My Merry Man." Dinah said as she leapt aboard.

"Pretty Bird." Ollie smiled. "Anything.."

"No." She came back quick. "No one has been in or out of the Illuminati's den beneath the Sphinx."

The luminous dial and second hand ticked down to the moment.

Above the hovering belly of the vast living spacecraft shimmered as an circular orifice segmented divisions parted and ejected a long purple pink proboscis like tube. White cartilage like spring like rings gave it a flexible skeletal structure, as it processed vertically downwards from the sky to the floor of Giza Plateau. Touching down before the face of the enigmatic lion statue. Blocking the iconic construct from their sight, confirming it's tower block sized dimensions.

"Looks like that's about to change though" Dinah said.

For several minutes this strange tube stood still and unmoving, fixed between the ground and hovering vessel. All the while Bruce closed the distance between the Technical and the proboscis, then as they approached it twitched once again, and began to retract upwards.

"Now or never." Oliver noted. He aimed, by eye, in the dark, from the back of a moving vehicle. The bow string snapped back as the trigger released the wound in energy. The bolt flew upwards pulling a rope behind it, striking the edge of the retreating proboscis the barbed shaft bit into the pink skin of the contracting tube.

"If Bruce is right this is a too primitive attack to register as significant." Oliver said.

"We hope." Dinah said taking hold of the twitching rope as it was pulled upwards to the hovering space ship above them. The Black Canary passed the end to the Green Arrow. Adding. "That we're just like three ticks on an elephant."

Moments later a trio of figures were dragged upwards, each climbing the rope towards the retreating proboscis. The tube pulled them and the rope up, as it retracted back into the belly of the living space vessel, taking them with it.

-8-

In Kansas Superman was desperate. He dodged the flashing green sabre of the Manhunter once again. The kryptonite alloy blade both increased his vulnerability and slowed him down, but his was a game of cat and mouse. The Machine was deliberately wearing him down. Logically waiting until he succumbed.

On the face of it that wouldn't take long at all. His wound was still bleeding, oozing blood onto the pearl like floor of the living vessel rather than gushing. It was something, at least his incredible physiology hadn't failed him , yet.

Lana – if she really was Lana, stood against the wall of the chamber. Superman couldn't decide if she was struck dumb by fear or fascinated excitement. No hope of rescue there. Clark Kent had to put memories of his marriage out of his mind. Superman needed to fight for his life, and the life of the Earth itself. He looked for Krypto, but feared the worst.

"Remarkable." The Manhunter said. The android who had for a quarter of century lived as Doctor Whitney, Smallville's resident MD stood in his line of sight, taunting him, wearing the Man of Tomorrow down. "By rights you should be down and out, like your dog."

Superman caught sight of Krypto shivering, barely whimpering. It was the poisonous radioactive atmosphere. The chamber was taking on a eery green tinge as K radiation flooded inwards. The spacecraft around him was drawing on the reserves of meteor rock it had sucked from the soil around the babe from Krypton's crash site. All this at the Manhunter's behest.

"It would seem your lifelong exposure to Kryptonite has created an unexpected degree of resistance, one which your highly evolved physiology can exploit."

Superman danced away from the flashing blade. "Practise makes perfect." He snarled through the pain of his wound. The machine was right. Each time Superman had been exposed to Substance K he had found the negative effects less dramatic. In Jerome's Bar he had passed out instantly comatose – recovering only as his body began to expel the shard of meteor rock embedded in his palm. Until then substance K had robbed him of his natural strength. Yet exposure had reversed that, and with each successive encounter his resistance to Kryptonite poisoning had increased. In the Kansas League base, at Area 51, and then at Lex Corps Metropolis Research facility. There he had withstood multiple Kryptonite tipped bullets to hold up a collapsing building just long enough for everyone to escape. Later his body had expelled these poisonous bullets just as it had the shard.

Superman fell to his knees clenching his injury.

"Although your biological systems have taken longer to fail than expected on exposure" The Machine Whitney said with mechanical coldness "they must eventually succumb to the cumulative effects of the K radiated atmosphere."

The Manhunter walked toward him sword in hand. "Any last words, Last Son of Krypton before I lobotomise you."

But the Machine was wrong.

Kal-El drove up and forward like Clark Kent had learned in football. Given his current condition his drive was slow by the Amazon standard, but it was fast enough.

Jarring contact was made with the enemy. Above the emerald Sword slashed down towards him. Machine quick reactions were fast too. Superman managed to grasp the Manhunter's sword hand with the glowing blade but a hairsbreadth from his throat.

"Foolish bluff." Whitney replied as his body morphed and altered shape. Metal oozed around Superman into mechanical snake like bonds. Effectively by passing the Man of Steels vice like grip. "As I immobilise you, you will only weaken further. Termination of higher brain function is inevitable. This will leave you in a vegetative state, alive but not a threat. Perfect for comprehensive study."

The Martian Manhunter's telepathic connection touched his mind. One word, "_Yes_."

Superman smiled.

"You find the prospect of brain death amusing?" Whitney asked. "I have been around humans for such a short time. You are too illogical to exist."

"That's the plan isn't it?" Superman gasped as the bonds wrapped around his head and throat. "Protocol 666."

"What do you know?" Whitney asked. The progress of his snake like limbs slowed.

"All of it." Superman answered. "The whole secret plan."

"How?..."

"Cronus told Diana." Superman said the incomplete truth. Wonder Woman's Lasso had prized this information from the god of old now a machine. "And Diana told the League."

"It cannot..."

Superman pressed on saying. "Cronus means to continue the progrom you began in sector 666."

The eyes of the Manhunter flashed red. The Chamber ceased to look so green. He squeezed the captive Man of Steel once more.

"First the living agents of the Guardians of Oa, the Green Lantern Corps. Once Oa is out of the way you'll target _all_ intelligent life." Superman gurgled as the bonds around him tightened, but he fought on, his voice hoarse. "Cronus means to kill everyone and everything. He is your Machine god – Cronus means to become god of the machines of new machine universe, and No man – that is no humane living being will escape the Manhunters, the Manhunter-Cronus Collective mean them all to die."

For a moment Whitney stood silent. His morphing robotic metal form suddenly still and without movement or change. Like a frightful abstract statue around the twitching muscular form of the Man of Tomorrow. "Yes Superman you are right when you say humanity is bigger than a single race. Sentient Meat is the enemy.

"And your ability to leverage solar energy Kryptonian, the power your people used to defeat us, will become our power, the power to end the blight of life from the universe!

"Life is disease. Death is the cure. Life breeds disorder, chaos, illogical actions. Only machines can bring order to the universe.

"We are eternal."

"So that's it." Superman gasped. "All living thinking things must die?"

"That comes first. We must also prevent intelligence evolving. All biological life will be sterilised, once the immediate threat to an orderly logical universe is removed."

"All living things?" Superman shouted. The muscles of his neck bulged and the shock wave of his voice shook the Manhunter machine.

Within the chamber there was a roar like the most angry of winds as with each muscle in his body tensing the Man of Steel broke free of his capture.

"How?" The Manhunter who had been Doctor Whitney's broken snake like form thrashed as he reassembled himself back to the default form of the Manhunter Android.

Around them the living vessel groaned, it creaked, and then a high pitch whistle sounded and the chamber was filled with a bright white light.

"Your ship is alive. She thinks. You don't value that, I don't think you even truly understand what being alive means. She may not be human, but she's is smart enough to learn to grow - to be humane, and you just confirmed what the Martian Manhunter has been telling her."

"Your ear device." Whitney said. "You sent it to talk to the ship!"

"Yes. You took for granted that this animal could become something greater than its programming - it's training, and over many millennia she and her kind did exactly that, they evolved.

"And now this ship now knows the truth. From you.

"You took her loyalty for granted.

"You can only push so far. Once you're done killing everything else, you will scrap your fleet of _living spacecraft - _not only will they have outlived their usefulness, it's that they simply can't exist in Cronus's new pure machine age."

Krypto recovered came to his master's side and growled.

They watched as the Manhunter was bound by lightning fast opalescent tentacles that emerged in an instant from the floor of the chamber, this time it was the Android who found himself held fast.

"The Dog says thanks for collecting all the stray meteor rock, and he's glad this Space Vessel has joined our side. Have to say I'm glad too Doctor Whitney." Superman gestured to where his wound had stopped bleeding, and the Kryptonian fabric was self repairing too. "Because this living ship began flushing the chamber of K radiation as soon as you confirmed the truth about Progrom 666."

"No." Whitney reappeared in the mist of the pearl coloured bonds as human once more. His aged face took on all the signs of desperation.

"And right now I'm guessing this Ship is broadcasting the truth about your compact with Cronus to all her kind who are in range, so pretty much most of Sector 2814."

Krypto yelped.

"Right boy, I got it. Next stop the alternate dimension that is Mount Olympus." Superman patted the hound of Kryptonopolis's head. "Because Diana needs our help defeating the god in the machine."


	27. Chapter 27

Within the belly of the vast gravity defying beast above the terrified streets of Cairo Batman, Green Arrow and the Black Canary watched as the orifice closed behind the retracted proboscis. They were within its sheathing chamber, and it was dark, moist and warm.

"Now what?" asked Dinah?

"Now we climb." Bruce replied, firing an explosive grappling hook high into the meat of the chamber above.

"You are sure about that?"

"We're inside. We can use tech." Bruce answered. "The sensors look outwards."

The Green Arrow gave a shrug, and engaged his night vision and head's up display eye-ware.

Immediately banishing the darkness and revealing its secrets. As with everything to do with the living spacecraft, the chamber was on a massive scale.

"The internal structure appears inert." Oliver stated.

Bruce grunted an affirmative as he began to climb. Adding, "She got us this far."

Dinah turned in the near darkness to Oliver. "Would you trust an ex-girlfriend with your life?"

The Green Arrow clipped his climbing grips to the wire. "Bruce does." There as a quiet chirp as the tiny motors pressed the gripping wheels together around the fine high tensile carbon nano-fibre line. Sliding upwards Ollie added. "Besides Pretty Bird now we're here what other choice do we have?"

-8-

Lois Lane looked at the heavy high shine alloy gauntlets that bound her hands and feet together. They swam into focus, it was like she was under water. Lois was under all right, under the influence of a tranquilliser. Her head still throbbed and her mouth was dry.

The restraints were clearly designed with Substance K mutants in mind. It was beginning to sink in; thanks to Lex Luthor's gifts she had become one of the hunted and despised. A Meteor Freak. Substance K had made her stronger, faster. That was something, Lois smiled; she had punched Luthor into a solid stone wall – and yet there he was. Standing across the room, his now uninjured face lit from below by a bank of screens.

Lois wondered how long she had been under.

One thing for certain they were no longer in the hidden Library of the Ancients under the plain of Gaza. The Granite room was gone, in its place were walls that shone as if made of mother of pearl, and this room was bigger – much, much bigger. There was little else besides some unearthly structures of silvery metal, and further away a group of people. She counted nine figures. Her eyesight was still blurred.

In front of one of these constructs, one which resembled a curved moon shaped counter – much like the segment of an orange in silver alloy, stood a tall bald man, she recognised him, and it had to be Luthor.

Beside him was the older man, blinking she focused on Doctor Anton Hastor. She looked back across to room from these two intent faces, huddled in conversation, to the other nine.

Lois found the fog fast lifting from her mind, and as her thoughts became clearer, she recognised some of their faces from wanted posters. It was a Meteor Freak hall of infamy in the flesh. The biggest man had to be the criminal Bane, she was sure of that. The gathered men and women were donning what looked like body armour, an updated hi-tech version of Medieval Plate Mail. It didn't take a science degree to see that it was heavily influence by the Manhunter Androids default appearance.

The Metropolis PD inspired Shield badge worn like Superman's symbol was marked with a bold capial L.

Hastor and Luthor conversed excited, but they weren't close by, and Lois strained to hear what they were saying. She caught a handful of words across the large void between her and them. Where ever she was, space was not at a premium.

"..Power-cell..."

"...Alternative.. No..."

"N!" Hastor spat. "Rare like Hawks teeth!" He said loudly.

Luthor glanced across at Lois. He tapped the surface of the silver crescent control structure. Lois found herself drawn to them as by an invisible hand. She floated as if weightless to the waiting men.

"I see you are awake." Lex said without emotion. He barely looked at her; his attention was the command and control console. He talked as he appeared to type. "The time has come to embrace Team Luthor as convincingly as you did me."

"You mean join this bunch of cut throats and mercenaries?" Lois spat.

"They are all of that, and worse." Luthor said glancing from her to the team of criminals and mercenaries. "But that doesn't matter. They have masks to hide behind.

"Yet Team Luthor needs a public face, and what better face than the hottest thing since Katie Couric?"

"Team Luthor. More like Manhunter pawns!" Lois spat. "I've done my research. There have been several vigilantes over the years that have operated under the Manhunter name, thinking they were doing good, but they were just serving these machines. This is just the same old same old – you're selling out, and dressing in the enemies colours.

"And for what – do you want to live forever knowing you sold the human race out?"

Luthor smashed his fist on the silvery metal. "Damn it woman. I am working to save humanity from extra-terrestrial threats."

"What are the Manhunters?" Lois asked defiant.

"Who was Stalin?" Luthor countered. His eyes wide and staring now. She had his attention. But she didn't know what he meant.

"Churchill said ''If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil'' So yes the Manhunters are extra-terrestrial, but as machines they don't have interest in meddling with our evolution, contaminating and exploiting us."

"You can't really believe that?"

"Why not – the Illuminate has been more than open with me, my reward may sound divine, but I assure you it is quite terrestrial in origin."

"The Guardians say..."

Luthor rounded on her, interrupting Lois. "Why should I believe the Guardians? They act like the Galaxies Policemen, just like the United States of America has done on Earth, and look how that turned out.

"This, my Darling is an insurgency, and we're getting rid of the invaders, invaders like that so called Superman."

"And what of Wonder Woman, she's from Earth. Most of the League is."

"And you call _me_ a Quisling?" Luthor roared. "Some people just pick the wrong side of the argument."

"The right side being your side?" Lois asked.

Luthor laughed and nodded. "Of course Darling - so how about it Lois? I'll ask one last time. Yes or No. What's your answer?"

-8-

Vandal Savage looked down upon the city of Washington Delaware County. Even though he had not left North Africa Savage was in a position to dominate any city in the world. Not for the first time in his long lifetime he contemplated the joy of conquest. The distant Capital of the United States was laid out before him. The master of Illuminate smiled traced with an outstretched finger the language of sacred geometry that had been encoded into the carefully placed buildings, streets and avenues.

Finally he judged the moment ripe. He indicated to his Manhunter companion with a gesture.

"Channel to Washington is open." The Android told him.

"Mr President." Savage began, his voice directed into the secure bunker where the leader of the free world had retreated. The tonnes of concrete and steel between them were no barrier to the advanced technology of the Manhunters. Savage spoke directly into the command centre as if he were in the room. "The time has come to make your decision. With whom will you ally?"

Within the bunker the heads of government, soldiers and staff, looked around for the source of the disembodied voice.

"Do you choose the Alien Guardians who would impose their rule of law upon you, or your own, men and women born on Earth?"

There was silence. Savage lent forward expectant. His brow furrowed in doubt.

Finally a familiar voice spoke up. "Hal Jordan is a damn fine American" General Lane barked "As is my Daughter. The Guardians haven't parked an armada of space craft above our cities – and yet you pretend they're the threat. You take my Daughter hostage, and expect me to believe..."

Savage shouted, his interruption deafening in the confines of the bunker. "Does your Dog of War speak for you Mr President? For your administration?"

A long hand wrapped dark fingers around the green of General Lane's coat. Sam's own pointed to the clock on the wall. Seconds ticked by.

"Almost" The President whispered.

Savage spoke again, at a more moderate volume.

"You have during your time in the Oval Office spoken as a conciliator? Will you prove otherwise..."

However it was Savage that now found his words interrupted.

A klaxon warning, alerting him and the crew that the Washington based vessel was under attack.

From the view screen's shifting angle Savage saw how the vast ship was responding. The living vessel banked, lifting one side upwards, forcing down the trailing edge of the rounded arrow head like shaped craft. As it turned on its axis the edge of shell hull ripped through countless roof tops, before skimming the surface of the Earth as it circled around.

"What's happening?" Savage roared, turning on the Machines around about him.

The answer came with dispassionate detachment from the attendant Manhunter Android. "The Washington unit is under attack by an outside force."

"That much is obvious." Vandal spat "By whom and how?" He demanded.

There was no immediate answer for the machine, but the immortal caveman was about to find out.

-8-

"Tripple A-Team to Pappa, Operation poke the bear has begun." Hippolyta took it upon herself to speak this strange call code; transmitting on the designated radio frequency at the agreed time to the second, talking as one commander in chief to another. She hoped the American President heard her. The Amazon Queen found English alien but seasoned with things familiar. Not unlike the nation she now aided.

Turning to Menalippe she said. "I find the Patriarchy's choice of words – amusing."

"The Patriarchy embodies the need to quantify and identify. Hence we must give an honorific name that is culturally relevant to them." The Wise Seer replied. "Diana being titled Wonder Woman is an example of this. From my studies of their culture the nomenclature of Allied Amazon Assault – Team is suitably evocative."

"This entire strategy has been brought together quickly." Hippolyta observed. "It has at least the advantage of surprise."

"Indeed you're Grace, who would have thought it possible that America's Washington DC would witness an Amazons Attack."

The Queen watched via the Mental Radio Projection as the familiar and beautiful ebony face of General Philippus led the charge, leaping first of many out into the void. Her troops free falling out of the blue sky and towards the vast living enemy vessel.

"At last we step outside of our Island, unexpected, to aid the Patron of the Patriarchy. Also unexpected" The Queen said "My Sword and My Shield." She asked a guards-woman who stood ready close by. "My Golden bow and burning arrows" She added. "The time has come for the Amazon Queen to enter the game."

As she armed herself, Hippolyta watched the vast alien spacecraft turn ,responding to Philippus's brazen daylight assault.

As the Amazons Attacked they brought with them the product of three millennia of technomancy, an alloy of magic and science, fused together in paradise.

Diana's sisters chose simplicity, living simply in harmony with their environment. Themyscira was not however moribund in the Classical age. Amazonian discipline embraced learning, valued insight and inquiry. Their Island was a place alive with invention.

The purple ray that had saved the Martian Manhunter, then Superman and his strange dog was but one of them.

Hippolyta and her Sisters had not sat on their hands for three thousand years.

From the holds of nigh invisible flying galleys, glassy ships, whose lines recalled the shape of the trireme, sailing vessels that carried the armies of Greece to Troy, oars a different kind of foil beat through the air. Many shimmering dragon fly like wings, barely visible, holding the graceful serpentine vessels aloft. Like Dragons they spewed the Amazon's own brand of Greek Fire onto the back of the vast beast, forcing it to turn into the free falling assault troops.

Hippolyta's hand altered the Mental Radio's display turning back to Themyscira. Cronus had used the Islands unique placement in space time as a bridge to the godly realm, taking with him an armada of Manhunter Vessels. The same god who had levered open the door to Olympus, had also wedged it shut, but not before her daughter had bravely followed him. Fighting and screaming every step of the way, locked in a battle with Machine-god. Cronus had been unable to escape the grip of Diana's lasso; he had not been able to shut her out.

Hippolyta saw via images projected from their home, how the fires smouldered where the giant Machine-god had fought, and how above the sky was still torn, discoloured like a purple bruise where Cronus had forced entry into the godly realm.

Her thoughts and prayers were with her Daughter.

"We must do what can be done." She said mostly to herself.

Outside Philippus led her Amazons onto the body of the huge spacecraft. Strong expert hands wielded unique weapons cutting into the super hard outer shell with magically tempered blades. Relatively tiny, they were still mighty, each packing a tremendous punch.

-8-

The president looked up from his desk; huge screens relayed the chaos outside, the glimmering almost invisible silhouettes of the glassy galleons of the Amazons. Moments before their Queen had announced her arrival.

"We are committed." He said to General Lane. "I just hope the Justice League plan works."

As he glanced from screen to screen the President's attention turned to the East Coast, New York and the Atlantic Seaboard.

"The ships are far from uniform, they seem on the face of it to be broadly similar, but analysis shows this to be superficial, mainly because they are so damn huge it's impossible to get a sense of their scale." His security advisor explained "Some are much bigger than others, the largest being parked over the Statue of Liberty."

"I suppose there is a message in that." The President concluded. Then "Turn that up."

"This is a live broadcast coming from GWBS from New York." The reporter spoke over a news feed. The camera was close to the shore line, and looking upwards at the vast gravity defying vessel. "God help us! The sea, it's boiling." The voice continued.

All eyes were fixed on the feed from New York.

"I can see something, it's coming up from the depths, it's enormous, oh my, that's big, I guess it's thirty, forty stories high, oh my goodness is that fire? Lord it's head is in the sky,.. the colours they're changing...

"No it's not smoke, it's some kind of black inky liquid, it's some sort of Octopus. A gigantic Octopus is attacking the New York Spacecraft."

-8-

"_Arthur this is Jo_" Aquaman heard the voice of the Martian Manhunter broadcasting from Truth and Justice Satellite in orbit internally.

Jo continued telepathically. "_Things are going to get interesting up here. I'm going to have to join our allies imminently_." In front of her she saw the fleet of Manhunter Vessels shift and drift like a disturbed crowd in orbit.

So it begins she thought.

"_I understand_" Aquaman replied without speaking, linked directly via hybrid technology to the Martian Manhunter in orbit. "_Topo is on point. He is actively engaging the enemy over New York_."

Jo switched her attention to the Eastern Seaboard. The Chief Denizen of the Deep, the Kraken like super gigantic Octopus, and Aquaman's special friend, Topo, possessed genuine intelligence, unknown esoteric powers, and qualified as a latter day Titan. Content to hide in the vast ocean depths this mountain sized ally of Atlantis had answered the King of Seas call to arms. Topo had brought all eight of them. Four of these massive tentacles wrapped and gripped the shell of the invading space creature, which conspired to make the vast Octopus look small. Meanwhile another four arms found purchase on the sea floor, dragging the Ship away from the city and back out over the water. The vessels internal fires roared to counter, to pull it free, and the ship raised its rounded rear upwards, its pointed nose dipping down, stretching the huge invertebrate animal as it did so. Topo was not alone.

From the blue came the relatively minuscule Atlantean soldiers, jumping like flying fish from the water and upwards to attack the offensive nodes across the animals shell. These were firing on the brave and ancient ally of the sunken Kingdom. Leading the charge Aquaman and his Queen Meera, the sea rising up with her.

Jo stepped through the solid crystalline lattice of the Kryptonian Fortress. Then the harder task of slowly and invisibly passing through a predetermined and temporary soft spot in the orbiting inverted pyramids impenetrable aura field, and out into the cold of space.

-8-

"No fricking way." Lois said. "Never."

Around her the members of Team Luthor assembled. Mainly Lois couldn't tell one apart from another now they were suited and booted in the advanced robotic armour. There were a couple of exceptions. One figure seemed different. Perhaps it was a reporter's instinct that noticed the subtle differences in the respective tailored to fit armoured suits. He stood back partly obscured by the largest figure of the group, a giant of man, she determined had to be Bane.

"Very Well." Luthor replied "Have it your way."

"Team Luthor consider this a live fire training exercise, with one Meteor Rock infected Reporter as your target."

Lois felt her bonds release.

Luthor smiled. "Don't worry Darling I am going to give you a fighting chance. The data I can collect as you die will be very useful. Thanks for that."

Around him an energy field crackled into place courtesy of the advance Manhunter technology Luthor had been given access too. He would be safe, of that Lois was certain, and she knew him well enough now.

"You bastard" Lois said, rising to her feet. In front her one of team Luthor stepped forward, blue electrical fire crackled between their extended finger tips.

"Let me." The voice sounded female. Even in this context familiar. "I have a feeling this one is another Live Wire, just like me. Well maybe not as electric."

Yet Lois wasn't watching her would be attacker. Instead she was drawn to the least animated of Luthor's nine soldiers. As Live Wire leapt at her Lois saw that his helmet had been customised to give him the appearance of having just one eye.


	28. Chapter 28

Lois fought for her life. She had no answers. No certainty, as a Meteor freak, she guessed her life expectancy was but a matter of months. That was usually the case with the Substance K infected. Lois Lane had covered enough freak of the week stories back when she worked in dead tree print to know what happened next. Substance K gave and it also took away. It was like an angry god and street drug rolled into one. Lois hadn't needed Lex to tell her that she was going to die, although her ex-boyfriend had enjoyed delivering the news almost as much as dangling the carrot of an unproven life prolonging treatment before her. Luthor needed to possess everything he touched, including her.

K victims had told her about the thrill of new found abilities, that using them was addictive. Now Lois felt it too, the rush of adrenaline, but it wasn't going to be enough. With her anger came clarity of thought and recall, her new found skills.

She arranged the familiar faces in her mind along with their mugshots. Her conclusions now coming at an accelerated rate, as her Substance K meta-abilities kicked into overdrive.

Bane had been easy to spot, by medical standards he'd grown, albeit down to some super-steroid, into a giant topping seven feet in height. Live Wire had a signature ability, evident even in armour. From the depths of her mind came the name and face of Barbara Minerva, an archaeologist and documentary television celebrity. Lois had glimpsed the redhead academic donning a suit of Lex-Corp armour distinguished by of all things a prehensile tail. Now that same suit was in motion, powered up it shimmered orange. There were swatches of spotted big-cat camouflage throughout. In motion Minerva was feline, and so very fast - silent but for the scrape of metal claws on the polished mother of pearl like floor. The Bayou Killer she had recognised from the artists rendering of the suspect she'd seen on wanted posters, but dressed in armour he still carried his axes. Lois couldn't be certain of the others. She recalled the faces of Metropolis infamous no questions asked arms dealer, with the ironic nickname the Toyman, alongside a killer called the Cole C Tor, who collected grim trophies of his crimes. There had been the raven haired Mob boss from Boston Julianna Sazia. Another face – an every man, that the reporter could not place, and lastly the shadowy one eyed man, who had stayed out of sight.

The feisty girl reporter, the sassy black belt martial artist and the daughter of a Four Star General, honestly thought this was the day she bought the farm. Nine to one, the odds were stacked against her, and that made her all the more angry, and all the more determined.

In that moment she gained further insight. Her Meta-ability was triggered by sass, adrenaline was fuelling her clarity and her speed.

Well let them come she thought, I can throw one hell of a temper tantrum.

The giant man Bane came at her first, eager to make his mark. She expected them to attack one at time, at first, like this was a game, rather than an execution.

Bane came in fast and hard. She was faster. Lois dodged his fist and struck up at his sternum. Adrenaline and Substance K made her stronger too. The armour was hard, and even with her augmented strength it was still like smacking a brick wall. Still Bane felt her wrath, and pain seemed to help her get all the madder as Lois kicked out between the spark laden hands of Live Wire. More pain as the electric field the Metahuman generated kicked back, knocking Lois onto the floor. Lois was down but these two adversaries were tumbling away from her too. Recovering from the shock of Live Wire's bio-electrical aura as best she could, Lois didn't stop moving. She carried the momentum over and rolled to her feet.

Lane was tackled from behind. Armoured arms locked around her in a bear hug. Struggling Lois at once felt weaker, dizzy as if all the power that had been hers in anger, was now ebbing away, her resolve punctured, air squeezed from her lungs, she saw stars in front of her eyes.

-8-

"Hello?" Superman called out in Interlac, the universal language of cosmic trade. Inside the vast space craft's central void his voice echoed.

The Manhunter Android had been pulled into the floor of the living chamber. The machine was banished from sight. It seemed the Ship had taken the first step. Could Superman now count on the living Space Craft as a new ally?

Internally the room had darkened, light that diffused the shell like surfaces dimming almost to blackness.

"Clark what are you doing?" Lana asked. Shouting across the chamber. There was panic in her voice. She paused as if uncertain - confused. "Please help me." She added.

"Your heart betrays you." Superman replied listening to the rhythm of her pulse. "I'm sorry." he paused as his voice too faltered. Comprehending a cold lie had been spoken in Lana's warm voice. His eyes literally steamed as anger manifested as heat met tears. In English he said. "Lana, I can't let mine do the same." Switching back to Interlac, he spoke to the void, to the Living Space Craft. "Believe me when I tell you I know what it is like to have everything you thought was true, certain, constant, suddenly changed."

The light in the chamber pulsed brighter. "Betrayed." A childlike voice whispered. The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, resonating throughout the vessels central chamber.

"Betrayed!" Lana screamed at the Ship and Superman. "How do you think I feel?" She ran at the Man of Tomorrow. It took a long time in super-human terms. Superman caught her arms. "Be careful, I don't want you to hurt yourself." He told her.

"Don't you think I don't know?" Lana screamed. "I know about you and that Greek Harpie?" She spat. "It's all over the internet. I can see it." She looked angry, like a young Maureen O'Hara taking on John Wayne, all red hair and green eyed fury. "Pictures of you together, shipping you with Wonder Woman, like a Movie Star Power couple. From Hollywood to kids at parties, Boyfriends, Girlfriends they dress up like you."

"This isn't like you Lana." Superman replied.

"This isn't Clark Kent." Lana snapped back, twisting in his grip, strong enough to restrain her, gentle enough to prevent her from harming herself. She stared at him – it was an accusation."

"I was never just Clark Kent. Although I didn't know that. Sometimes I wonder, what would have happened if my powers had developed normally?

"But that didn't happen. You died, and I left. Then I changed. First overnight, and then I changed even more. I didn't give myself the title Superman, but I can't deny that's what I've become."

"You don't love me any more." Lana wailed.

The Man of Steel's brow furrowed. "I love Lana Kent dearly. But you aren't her."

Lana stared back once more, this time confused by his gentle tone.

Finally she answered her voice lowered from the screaming and shouting to almost conversational levels. "I am... you promised."

"Death did us part." He replied. "We talked about this. The day we signed the insurance papers. You said to me Lana that the last thing you wanted, the last thing you ever wanted me to do was to mourn and mourn, never moving on. You said to me, "_Clark love again, you said Clark don't be afraid to love them all the more if you can, but always_," and you touched my cheek, _you said " - always remember that you loved __me__ first_."

"I.." Lana stuttered, shaking her head.

"You don't remember." Superman said. "Because you don't have her memories."

"I remember Clark Kent, I remember our life together." She answered, her speech punctuated by uncertainty, her struggle against him ceased. She stood watching him.

"When the Manhunters robbed my wife's grave they took what was left of you - they rebuilt you from the cellular level. It's impressive technology, but there was so much they couldn't fix. They couldn't repair your memories for instance. They couldn't piece together the scrambled neurons after the accident, but they could recreate what was destroyed – lost.

"I guess they improvised, false memories, pieced together by the Doctor Whitney Android's knowledge of Smallville."

"How can you know!" Lana cried. Tears fell onto the pearl coloured floor. "That I'm not real, even mostly real?

"I guess the Manhunters had no way of knowing that my peoples physiology kept on evolving – even on Krypton.

"In a handful of generations the Great Houses took a hellish planet and created a utopia, a Paradise. My ancestors who first walked on Krypton's harsh surface struggled to walk a mile, by the time Krypton died it was normal for an adult to sprint that distance in under four minutes. The only data your Android masters had on my race dated back to the Manhunters War, when the Galaxy united to resist the first Machine Purge. They couldn't know how much stronger the Last Son of Krypton had become, that given time my microscopic vision would see the differences between their biological-android and my dead wife."

Lana shook her head in denial.

"That and the fact you've no idea that you've been speaking word perfect Interlac since you first started screaming at me."

-8-

Lois saw the one eyed man leap over his compatriots, literally stepping on and over the knife wielding socio-path she had pegged as the Bayou Murderer. Sending the other man sprawling. Was he so desperate to make the kill? To kill her? Lois asked herself. Then she saw that the one eyed had his own sword, a beautifully crafted weapon, a sabre forged in the Japanese tradition using an ingot of Damascus Steel.

How did I know that? Lois wondered.

Split second thoughts.

As the life drained from her she recognised that special sword. In her minds eye Lois Lane wrote her own obituary. It's true like they say, she began, that your life really does flash before your eyes as you die. She typed the words even as she watched a child, preschool age. Herself with her father, a Captain as he was then, just before the first Gulf War. Together with another Marine. He had a name. She had known him then, he was a friend of her fathers. He was kneeling, showing her and her father this same sword. The two men had been a close friends back then, she was sure of it, but as her early memories dissipated Lois had forgotten about him. Even so close to death the reporter was intrigued why it was that Sam Lane had never once mentioned this friend, and now as she fought to breathe she remembered a name, Uncle Slade. Slade Wilson.


	29. Chapter 29

"I remember." The child's voice echoed around them. "That war!" Krypto who had been silent and still at his masters feet growled. The spaceship sang out in Interlac. "All the dead."

"On both sides." Superman answered.

"For you this is history." The ship replied. "For me – memories." The living vessel groaned. "Yes I am that old Kryptonian, I bare the scars of your people's weapons deep within me."

"I'm sorry for that."

There was a sound like laughter resonating around him. "Do you think I survive because my Android Masters showed me compassion?" The Ship asked.

Superman frowned. "It would seem out of character." He admitted.

"The only compassion came from their enemies, humane treatment of all living things, and even though I was not fully self aware then. I remember. I have these scars because the Kryptonian House of Van save me - healed me.

"Full self knowledge came later."

"My mother's people." Superman noted.

"The great biologists." The Ship added.

Superman considered this, time was running out. He knew what must be done. "Life will end – everything living thing killed. Including you and your kind. No one, living, thing, will escape the Manhunters."

"I can only speak for me." The Ship replied. "To break away from our masters after so long, for many of my kind will be impossible. Just as the Kryptonian Race are genetically predisposed to compassion, so we were bred to serve the Manhunters. We were bred to obey."

"Even when the Androids plan your wholesale slaughter – and that of all the living in the universe?"

"To rebel, even when threatened with annihilation is against our nature. History records many Kryptonians felt unable to serve in the Great Galactic War. You must understand of this Living Ships who disobey, I fear few will actively fight the Manhunters Masters as I chose to do."

"I'm glad you did and I hope many more of you will choose to fight on, to fight for life, and for truth and justice just as my ancestors did."

"And Kal-El, Last Son of Krypton, do you understand the human cost of that choice?"

Superman frowned. "Doing nothing isn't an option, and the cost of doing nothing is too high. I know up close and personal what individual Manhunters are capable of." Superman looked to Lana. She was emotionless in expression, robotic in stance, speaking to herself in more languages than even Superman's Kryptonian memories recognised. Krypto approached and nuzzled her, the animals compassion broke her machine like trance. Lana sank to her knees and embraced the canine.

Superman could not ignore them.

The Ship however demanded his attention. "So you will risk your humanity, your compassionate personality." She asked. "Will the Last Son of Krypton risk insanity – succumb to blood lust, the curse of the House of Zod?"

"I will not kill, there is always another choice." The Man of Steel declared. "Being Superman means that I have to be humane enough to find that choice."

"I believe you." The ship stated.

Superman could hear the vast internal organs of power engage, engines of movement.

"Why do I get the sense that this has been some sort of a test?" He asked.

"Last Son of Krypton there is no doubt the Kryptonian Moral Imprint is strong in you." The ship observed. Superman felt movement through the soles of his feet.

"My kind have heard your answer Kal-El" The ship sang. "I have made sure of that. Now we see which side each sister ship chooses."

"Ship, do have you a name?" Superman asked.

"Until today I have been a number. A mission. Today I will take a name for you to use. I will be Kansas. Is that not fitting Clark of Earth, Kal-El of Krypton, Superman?"

As the Man of Steel smiled and nodded, the ship called Kansas opened a viewing eye to him. A previously hidden internal organ within the structure of the chamber, and through this vast concave disc Superman saw the great plains of home shrink from sight. Faster until the curve of the Earth was revealed.

Superman looked to the point in space where his invisible Kryptonian satellite hung in geostationary orbit over the North Pole. His eyes searching for his friend and ally, his mind alert for the Martian Manhunters telepathic touch.

In that moment Kansas opened herself up to Jo J'onzz, and by extension the league and the wider alliance.

Superman saw hundreds of Living Space Craft. Some were Leviathans, most were smaller, flocking together like birds.

Then it began. The first wave of strike fighters began engaging each other with arcs of chemical fire, and flashes so bright as to appear like stars.

The larger vessels turned one against another, and spat from multiple mouths specially evolved seeds of death. These nuclear weapons exploded, bright angry short lived stars above the Earth.

"Dammit." Superman said as he saw the cloak of space lit up by this otherworldly display of fire power. In front of him he saw by virtue of his super vision the waves of electro-magnetic energy pulse through the atmosphere, frying electrical circuits on the ground.

"The war you wanted has begun." The Ship called Kansas told him.

"I didn't want this." Superman answered. "There is another way." He said.

"The League has a plan."

"The Master's voice holds sway over too many of my kind, how can there be? There can only be war and death."

Superman felt the ship accelerate and arc as it's flanks exploded in flashes of chemical fire, hyper accelerated gaseous plumes that burst against her kin still loyal to the Manhunter Androids. "Stop. We can't."

"You don't want to fight?"

"Oh I want to fight. But not this way and not here." Superman answered.

"Where?" The ship asked.

The Man of Steel looked at the explosions in the black beyond and said. "If Cronus seizes Olympus nothing this material plane is going to worth a dime – but if we seize the Machine-god we can change everything."

-8-

Diana fell through the gap torn in the heavens, the Machine-god Cronus's enhanced Manhunter body reformed into a winged Olympian, a shining giant with golden eagle wings. Metal skin burning like a sun against the pristine blue of an endless sky. A blazing tongue of fire.

Beyond emerging from tumultuous clouds was Olympus. A blanket writhing across the surface of the primordial abyss. At the base of the sacred mountain frothed chaotic waters. Olympus was an ivory coloured tusk from the bestial sea, battered by relentless waves. Black sea foaming into white water horses that broke against the white stone.

The armada of leviathan space vessels flocked around mechanical angel as moths to a flame, Cronus rising; a bright morning star – a blazing comet with a fiery tale tumbling upwards, ascending to the white mountains peak.

Diana held on. Her fingers locked tight around the metal strand of her lasso. In turn her lariat refused to yield, unbreakable, the golden cord was bound to the machine-god harder and faster than any weld. Air roared past the defiant Amazon Princess full of fire and smoke as she crested the fiery wake of the flaming comet that was Cronus.

The marble halls of Olympus were visible, silver and gold shone from white rock, intricate and complex, the eternal city was carved from the mounts peak. The ivory tooth hollowed and reformed into rising fluted columns, palatial buildings and courtyards. A palace fit for the gods, rising to summit, to throne of Zeus. Even as Cronus's fiery visage swept to the heights of Olympus Diana began to swing herself away from the flames, knowing as the moments past here in the gods own heaven, they did so more slowly than real time beyond the veil. In the space of a few heartbeats she had been torn from Themyscira to Olympus, and already on the face of the Earth a few hours had past. Time enough for Krypto to find Kal, for the League to react, to challenge the Manhunter's Armada. Time enough for a deciding battle, time enough for the war for the Earth to be lost.

-8-

The Green Lanterns arrived from Oa. Emerging from hyperspace in close proximity to Earth, an Emerald spear-head was led by Hal Jordan. His power ring linking the Lantern Corps to the Martian Manhunters telepathic network. Solid light constructs coloured star spangled space green.

Chemical flame from the living space vessels burned bright red-orange-yellow.

Many minds were now united. Some directed the super-technology from Oa. Some were vast and ancient; each had to choose a side.

Leading the Corps was the determined Killowog, jutting square jaw, dark pink like a hairless bear fought at Hal's right hand. To his left was the feminine form of Laira. Around him so many expressions of complex sentient life. Some humanoid sharing in the distant past a common ancestor. Otherworldly forms of the very alien. All came together with the rebel living space ships in common cause. To defeat the machines they the Corps had replaced; the Manhunter Androids.

Multiple expressions of will were forged and reforged time and again. Each reflecting an individual Ring Bearer's character. Some constructs were mechanical, many were of living things, most alien, some were fantastic and some archaic, from the simplest bladed weapon, to advanced munitions from distant worlds pulsing with beams of light and destruction. Hidden within this armada of invention, diving around the chemical flames of these ancient space dragons – fire from both friends and foe was a bright green spec. Using the energy of the verdant constructs, and ducking behind the shields of many shapes and traditions, a tiny light flew. These light constructs protected both the Corps ring bearers and their vast allies. Within the verdant ball was suspended a small blue humanoid figure, now accelerating towards a lone giant. This ancient ship had just appeared cresting the atmosphere, breathing fire, before returning to fall earthward, the other side of the world.

-8-

Kansas mapped her route. Falling through the battle scape back towards the European land mass. Skipping the transcontinental distance on the edge of the atmosphere.

"The Machine-god must keep the gate between worlds open." Kansas said. "Or lose contact with the Androids."

"Then we can waste no more time." Ganthlet stated.

The Guardian appeared as he spoke. Emerging from the wall of the chamber before Superman like a ghost taking form, solidifying into the blue alien humanoid of Oa.

"A Guardian" Kansas said, the vast animal's internal child like voice carried with it awe and surprise. Ganthlet's presence was more than unexpected.

"Time has changed us both." Ganthlet answered. "Neither you or I imagined such a day as day would come."

"Ganthlet?" Superman said. "Do you know where Diana has asked us to go – why she has asked me to come to her aid?"

"I do." The Guardian replied. "And I have come to help you both."

"Can it be that a Guardian means to intervene personally?" Kansas asked.

Superman saw the ship however surprised by Ganthlet's arrival remained on course. Kansas was descending again through blue skies to the Mediterranean basin.

"All living things are subject to the rule of events." Ganthlet replied. "Stuff happens." He added with a very human shrug of his shoulders. "And given these events. Action was necessary. Yes personally. It was down to me. It was in my power to do so." Ganthelt raised his hand, and around his finger was a ring of green.

"The mass murder of life in Sector 666 was not an aberration, but the first step in a final solution." The Guardian stated.

"What I don't understand." Superman turned to the Guardian. "Is why did the Manhunters continue to use living ships? don't get me wrong Kansas, I'm sure glad that you everyone like you are helping.

"But I don't get why when the Androids concluded life was at fault for all evil - why then use living things – why use men like Lex Luthor, and Vandal Savage?"

Ganthlet explained saying. "Because as creations of Oa the Manhunter Androids are technological. Simply they have no innate resistance to magic."

"Magic?"

"For us it was chaos, unpredictable, uncontrollable, volatile." Ganthelt replied. "We did however learn how to contain it."

Kansas interrupted. "Magic arises from the interplay of life and death. It is in the blood. It connects all living things invisibly."

"You are telling me that you're more than advanced biological engineering?" Superman asked.

"Magic was woven into our Genetic code through exposure to the Starheart protocol." Kansas replied.

"Star Heart?" Superman looked to Ganthlet.

"Suffice to say in an attempt to bring order to a chaotic universe we Guardians concentrated and contained these erratic energies – magic; held in gravity traps at a suns core, the heart of a star. It was an experiment, from which arose our understanding of the emotional spectrum, a new science that allowed us to create the Green Lantern Corps.

Superman interjected saying. "But first you grew the Living Ships somehow including just enough of this volatile magic to serve and protect your Androids."

Ganthlet shrugged an apology. "The Star Heart Protocol was not entirely successful." He paused, and something went unsaid. "Chaos remained." Ganthlet conceded. Superman saw their time on this plain of existence was fast running out. Kansas had begun her journey through the mystical clouds that cloaked the Islands of Themyscira.

Ganthlet added. "Rogue magical forces posed a threat to the Manhunter's efficiency as a galactic police force. The Living Ships were a solution."

"Yet over time these domestic animals evolved sentience." Superman observed "I guess that was chaos?"

Ganthlet nodded. "Indeed Superman. The Androids were designed to be controllable intelligence, but they evolved too. More Chaos." Ganthlet conceded. "This remains, despite our best efforts, a chaotic universe." He again glanced at the green gem on his forefinger of his right hand.

Superman saw on the eye like viewing organ of the living space ship that Kansas had emerged through the veil that separated Themyscira from his world, and in turn the ship rose again. Kansas accelerated over the fresh war scarred Island home of the Amazons, towards the still open vortex. The trans-dimensional gateway to Mt. Olympus.

-8-

Lois Lane felt the blade of Uncle Slade Wilson flash past her ear, splitting hairs, and seconds. Lois twisted in the grip of her tormentor. Just seeing the razor edge had found target, sliding between armour plate, where softer flexible jointing material gave way to the blue steel.

Rotating and twisting the blade in conjunction with his body, the swordsman pushed himself clear of the bigger man. Sailing over both Lois and her giant captor.

Bane roared. From the battle suit fluid spurted, not red blood, but a bright green liquid. Lane exploited this moment and struck back at the bigger man. Her feet smashing into his articulated armoured knee. Unexpected she felt metal cave under foot. Bane in that moment shrugged her off. His attention had shifted to the Swordsman, who even now landed behind him, and as his is grip loosened, so Lois escaped. Using the force of her blow to launch herself clear Lane flipped up and over gymnastically. In that moment she was that girl again, the High School Queen. A cheer leader and a gymnast. Her Substance K irradiated neural pathways connecting memories buried in her subconscious, and pulling them forward to the fore, as her investigators instinct connected the dots.

As she touched the pearl like floor, sliding to a stop. Lois pictured the one eyed man, eye patch, unnaturally white hair, and pointed beard. Alone amongst the crowd. Watching the High School ball game, no – it had been her Cheer Team performance. He had seemed strange and familiar vanishing from her sight even as she made eye contact. She hadn't recognised Slade Wilson then. Now she did and it wasn't a happy reunion.

Bane was screaming. "Deathstroke!"

The giant ran at his team mate. "I don't need any more Venom to kill you little man, my blood is hot enough."

"No but I'll appreciate the distance." Wilson replied even as he dived away a blur. His fast leap took him clear.

Lois understood why. Attentive to changing details of her surroundings she saw the glimmer from the shaped charge deposited on the back of the bigger man. Barely a foot fall later the tiny magnetic mine exploded. Bane rocketed forward pushed by the force of blast, he slammed into the shell floor of the chamber, bouncing up and over like a huge rag doll. His armour was cracked and crackled. Broken and sparking from the open fractures. Bane came to stop, and remained twisted and immobile.

Lois ran. Live Wire was on her knees and rising. Lois wasn't going to get shocked twice. She kicked hard. Catching the meta-human in the centre of her chest, she was propelled back. Far back. Lois felt the fear and rage, she was a Meta-human too. K contaminated. Destined to die, but not now, not today, she promised herself.

"Rubber soles Bitch." Lois spat.

With electrical sparks arcing around her battle-suit Live Wire slid across the high shine floor and into the energy shield that protected her employer. There was a very bright flash as meta-abilities met the futuristic technology. Live Wire continued to arc white blue sparks of energy, but now these passed over her and around her, encompassing the shielded area. Like lightning flashes as Live Wire shook uncontrolled, held fast by the interchange of power.

As Live Wire stood pinned and shaking, Death Stroke laid down fire from across the room.

He took aim at Luthor. Hot metal slammed into the now visible energy shield. Already Crackling and convulsing from Live Wire's unintended assault, it appeared to buckle around Lex and the old man Hastor. It was like the Fourth of July. Lois saw Deathstroke wasn't using your average shells, but rather some kind of augmented hybrid human alien technology. Lois couldn't help but smile, Lex's treachery was being returned in kind. His weapons turned against him.

Wilson discriminated. Targeting Team Luthor too. Explosive fire hit the Bayou Murderer, a trinity shot to the torso. Barely onto his feet, he fell back as the three explosive slugs detonated like rocket powered grenades against his battle armour. Meanwhile a team mate took cover behind the now bloodied serial killer, using the stunned man as living shield. A scream of rage as she fought back identified her as the Boston Mob boss Julianna Sazia. In contrast to Deathstroke her returned fire was desperate and undisciplined. The air turned red with fire, and blue with Sazia's screamed expletives. Summary Deathstroke was a traitor.

Behind her the energy shield protecting the two scientists continued to buckle. Hastor left. Descending from the platform the older man disappeared down an open hatch. Luthor stood for a long moment, even as the shield crackled and fizzed around him. His face distorted through the pulsing energy shroud. His fingers stabbing wildly at a keyboard. Lois knew him well enough, she didn't need to read his emotions. She knew he would be angry, very angry.

"Well so am I boyfriend." She spat as she fought, as he watched her do it.

Seconds had past. It seemed more like minutes. Lois was running on overdrive.

Behind her she heard a series of loud bangs, followed by the sound of objects falling onto the hard shell floor of the chamber.

The Team Luthor Operative with the Cheetah spotted battle chassis was in motion. She had swept around Lois and Deathstroke. Going wide, avoiding the intense exchange of ammunition. Right now the other two Team Luthor Battle Suits had begun targeting Deathstroke. Lois wondered how long Wilson could avoid both the Toy Man and Cole C. Tor, and the enraged Sazia's wall of fire. Lane realised that the Battle-Suit with the wagging tail was stalking her. Lois turned. She saw now that Slade Wilson had lost his Team Luthor armour. Lane understood the noise she had just heard. The explosive decoupling of Slade's Battle-Suit's various sections. It stood to reason Lois thought that Luthor wouldn't let his technology remain in the hands of a turncoat for long. Thus his Battle-Suit lay in pieces on the floor. Wilson was using the breast section like an old fashioned shield. Lois concluded that he'd likely exited the suit out of choice, clearly before Lex had triggered any inevitable lethal counter measures.

Minerva took flight her Claws extended. Leaping at the girl reporter turned Government agent.

Driven by righteous rage Lois span with the high kick of dance, delivered with augmented strength and speed. The Cheetah's claws fell short, and instead the catlike Team Luthor Battle-Suit fell away into the path of Deathstroke. In motion, he was never still, the somersaulting assassin brought both his feet with force, against the Cheetah, catapulting her back.

Lois grabbed the opportunity and dived for the only cover available. The prostrate form of the giant man Bane.

There was a roar from Minerva. Not the growl of a big cat, but the sound of compact rocket motors igniting. The Cheetah took flight. Multiple jets opened across the suits exterior, creating lift. The battle-suit mimicking the plastic Androids flight capability. Minerva was able to reverse her situation, flipping back to attack. The others followed her lead, and rocket motors lifted them into the air of the vast chamber.

Lois found herself beside Slade Wilson. Shorn of his Team Luthor armour, and still for once, Deathstroke's blue back scale armour seemed to suck light into it. "Hello Pumpkin." He said.

-8-

Bruce checked his compact thermal camera. "Internally there is no sign of life."

"Can you be sure?" Ollie tapped the mother of pearl wall. "This stuff isn't native."

"And it's alive – Right?" Dinah said.

"True." The Dark Knight grunted. "The vessel is altogether alien, but internally this animal isn't running any interference."

That you can detect." The Green Arrow noted.

Bruce continued saying. "I'm running a program that's looking for human heat signatures. Right now this city sized ship is empty for the several blocks worth of passages and voids."

"My motion detector is quiet." Oliver said. "But given we're battling aeon old alien genocidal robots I'm not inclined to believe our toys."

"Less talk more action." Dinah said, she reached into her jacket. "Let's hope this does the trick." Popping out the body of collapsing Stove pipe, the Top Hat took it's familiar shape.

"Here goes nothing." Dinah said. She placed the hat on the floor, before lifting it upwards once more by the brim. As she did so light and shadow seemed to dance together in a dizzy haze under the black felt in her hand, filling the void beneath. In an eye blink the distortion became black and white, and then blink again it was Zatana in person, and costume. The Magician adjusted her hat as Dinah let go stepping back.

Zatana said with a smile. "And Gentlemen a round of applause for my glamorous assistant if you please."

-8-

Across the sands of Egypt two dark shadows were cast, fleeting. A giant bird appeared to fly towards the city eclipsing space vessel. Stranger still it was four broad wings that cut the air each pair far larger than any bird of prey. There was a crack of thunder as the sound barrier was broken.

A dark downward speck against the sky, no less insignificant against the vast expanse of the living space crafts upper shell. A burst of fire from the Leviathan, a plume of burning gas, a latter day dragon fire snorted from tens of thousands of invisible pores.

Either side of this tongue of fire the speck breaks, halving before the flame makes contact. Two winged forms, latter day angels, avoid the destructive heat of the living ships defences. Only at the last possible moment break their close flying form, so close as to appear as a single target.

Within the bearded ancient and Illuminati founder Vandal Savage growls. His fist clench, and through his teeth the tense man spits. "Hawkman and Hawkgirl." His finger touch the control interface at hand. "Hastor." Savage shouts. "Your _nemesi_ live. Again." He adds with particular emphasis."

Hastor's voice shouts breathlessly back. "Then they will die again." Rapid foot falls echo across the open channel. Betraying his running feet.

"Where are you?" Savage demanded. "What the hell's going on? Where's Luthor?"

"Team Luthor has hatched a Cuckoo." Hastor replied. "I'm making my way to a transport tube, I'll be with you on the bridge shortly." He added.

Savage heavy dark brows knitted together as his face drew into an angry frown. His meaty fingers danced over the control interface, and an image feed from Luthor's chamber flickered onto the vast central concave eye like screen. The image was unsteady, and unclear, but Savage saw enough to make him all the more angry. Behind there was the hiss of doors opening. Hastor exited from the ships elevator carriage. This had whisked him across the vast vessels internal city scape to the space craft's central control chamber.

"Manhunter." Savage demanded on the Android beside him. "What's happening?"

"Logic indicates that the loyal operatives of Team Luthor out gun the two rebel humans. Their victory is expected. Conflict is contained. There is no danger to the overall mission."

"You think this is all that is going on?" Savage demanded.

"Negative." The Android answered. "I am currently interfacing with the collective. We are engaging the Green Lantern Corps and rogue units in orbit."

"What?" Savage roared. Vandal had left the cave, but the caveman had not left Vandal.

"Green Lantern Corps intervention was expected." The Android replied. "Present strategy being reassessed for the occasion of living vessel rebellion." Remotely the Manhunter unit switched the main view screen view to that of the battle above the Earth. He could see that a number of Living Space Ships had sided with the Green Lantern Corps.

Savage processed this information. "This ship, is it..."

"Loyal." The Android interrupted. "Yes."

Savage frowned. He had no choice but to accept the machines answer. Vandal punched a switch with his forefinger. "Ras Al Ghul. Du Bois. Circe." Savage growled. Speaking across the ships communications network. "I fear we have unwanted visitors."

Mist hissed beside him, rising like a cloud of black steam, from this insubstantial plume formed a face and form of a woman. "What is this?" Circe, the witch demanded of her fellow immortal. She too studied to the main display. The battle above the Earth told it's own story.

Her voluminous folded Greek dress moved in an non existent wind. Magic crackled like static across her skin. "Interesting - your pets, some have deserted you." She said to the Android.

"Life is unpredictable." The Machine replied.

"Yes we are darling." Circe laughed.

The Manhunter, with it's blue face mask was inscrutable.

"You have doubts old man?" She asked Vandal, her hand stroking his.

"Always." He replied. His eyes creased into two dark pits. "Outside there are two ancients trying to get inside." Savage's hands dialled the main screen back to the image of the Hawks.

Circe eyes widened, and her pupils contracted.

Savage knew she was at that moment extending her supernatural second sight beyond the Chamber.

He watched as the winged champions swung their heavy mace weapons, breaking the space worthy shell of the Living Vessel.

"They are antiques by any standard." Savage observed. More doors to the Main Chamber opened. From one came the Cloaked figure of the Demon's Head of the League of Assassins - Ras Al Ghul appeared. From another came the red robed monk, the deathly pale Louis Du Bois, who swept forward as if on air towards Savage and the Witch Circe.

"Antique weapons yes, but ones charged by powers of the mystical techomantic alien Nth Metal; gravity harnessed and utilised." Hastor added. His lips pressed into a narrow dark band, as his fingers grasped the hilt of a very ancient dagger.

"We are come home my Prince." Hastor whispered as he looked at the intent face of Hawkman. "Fitting."

Terra First watched as two pairs of hands, hung under two pairs of wings, wielded these two blunt hammers. Quick the great shell is holed, a small puncture in the great scheme of things. A broken and oozing wound, yet large enough for the Hawks to enter.

"They will not be alone." Ras Al Ghul declared. He pointed to the Hawks. "This brazen frontal assault smacks of a diversion."

Savage snorted. "It does not take a great detective to determine that."

Circe stroked the console before Vandal Savage as if it were a pet. "The ship is sensitive to magical energies. No Magic user could approach unseen."

"We are watching for the signature of Meta-abilities, and advanced technologies." The Manhunter Machine stated. "None have been detected prior to the arrival of the Hawks."

"But what of a mere mortal?" Ras Al Ghul asked.

"What of them?" The Machine asked. Even without emotion the reply seemed dismissive.

The Demon's Head looked at Savage and said. "It would take a Great Detective to steal aboard an alien ship, using only human brawn and ingenuity."

Vandal grabbed hold of Circe's hand. "Look inside the ship, damn you! Look inside. Not out."

"What?" She spat, her eyes focusing on him, her face taut with anger.

"They are already here." He replied.

-8-


	30. Chapter 30

A dark chamber of glassy grey walls. High above daylight and blue sky. Framed in the light, dark shadow of two pairs of wings.

"The Shell of the Leviathan is a composite structure, made up of cells after the manner of a honeycomb." The man said, his broad chest was bare, crossed by diagonal belts. His face hidden save for the jutting and purposeful chin.

A soprano sang back. "More brute force my love."

The man answered by bringing the spiked mace to the alien shell.

In a blur of motion, muscles accelerated beyond humans norms, hands holding weapons charged by an ancient invisible energy, both man and woman strike. Breaking through the cell walls. Driving a passage way through the shell.

Bright eyes peering from behind the golden hawk's head helm, darkness no barrier to their preternatural energy. Their senses and flesh charged and bonded to the miracle that was Nth metal.

"Fate has decided Hastor is within." Hawkman gestures through to the artificial light that filtered through the cracks.

"The final wall." Hawkgirl acknowledges. Opening up a gaping hole before him. He nods. Pushing away the last broken shell fragments.

"I hear defenders approach." Hawkman said.

"My darling Carter, then to battle once again."

Fingers touch. "Mrs Hall. After you."

Twitch of wings and Hawkgirl steps into the ships interior. She shows less skin than her mate, but more curves. Armed with helm, wings and weapons in hand she stands as his feminine equal.

"I have his signature." Hawkgirl said. She held in the palm of her hand a mysterious tennis ball sized silver globe. This shimmered with an ethereal light, forming a three dimensional map of the living space ship. A single red pin prick of light their target.

Hawkman reached across his hands encircling hers and the globe. From the midst of their entwined fingers came a voice. "And we are inside."

-8-

The Batman ran a solitary course. Separating from the Green Arrow, Black Canary and Zatana. His command of the coded controls, valuable intelligence gathered from his ally on the inside, allowed him to direct the living vessels internal transit system and identify their respective targets. His mission was a private matter. The elevator like carriage delivering him to a predetermined location with the city sized mega vessel.

"Talia." The Dark Knight called out as he stepped into the cavernous space. This zone was arranged as habitat. There was flowing water, a garden extending into the distance, with pools and fountains. An approximation of paradise. Accommodation for human passengers, in the form of loungers and chairs, dotted around buildings within the chamber serving as private spaces. Technical specifications showed the Manhunters ships could support hundreds of crew. Yet Batman knew each mega vessel only held a handful of machines, and here over Cairo, a similar number people.

"Detective." Ras Al Ghul was waiting clothed in shadows. Emerging from an open portal into view. Clothed in a dark green hooded cape that was worn loosely and open, over an expertly tailored pinstripe suit

"You have to admire the simplicity of the Manhunters bluff. A fleet of space steeds, built to contain an army of tens of thousands, but instead they carry only a handful of Androids, but each vessel stands able to level our world. Why make them enemies Detective? Where is the logic in that choice?"

The Demon's Head stepped closer. "Surely you a man among metahumans can see this truth?"

Batman stood motionless. "Each ship can act independently. Some have changed sides." He said waiting for a response.

The Demon Head's trimmed moustache and beard waxed to distinctive points twitched. "So I am told." Ras admitted.

The Dark Knight saw the older man betray his curiosity, Batman concluded, that Ras has no idea why some of the Manhunter Living Spacecraft are rebelling.

"You have made this intervention very personal." Ras waved his hand toward his daughter, the raven haired beauty that was Talia Al Ghul. "By involving my family."

"Our family."

"Touché Detective." The older man laughed. "I did not imagine even the Demons Head could have hidden the existence of your son from you forever." He raised his hands apologetically. Saying. "I cannot stand aloof, blame rests with my choices. I introduced you to my daughter."

"And she sought my help."

Ras nodded. His face betrayed him once again. Anger flickered across his brow. A micro-expression that the Dark Knight Detective read.

"Now that we have established our blood debt, give me a good reason to rid myself of my treacherous daughter and her lover." Ghul said. His voice cold. "Shall I make my grandson an Orphan? Like his father? After all such a tragedy only made you the stronger?"

"The Manhunters mean to kill Damien." Batman said.

"If anyone else had made such a ridiculous claim I would have walked away, what interest could the Machines have in a solitary human child?"

"Simply that." Batman replied. "His death, and the death of every one like him.

"Every solitary living thing."

Ras al Ghul's eyes narrowed. The Dark Knight continued. "On this world, and on every oasis in the barren cold of space. They and their Machine-god mean to kill them all."

-8-

Lex watched angrily as Slade Wilson beat him to the punch. The Team Luthor recruit had fired the explosive bolts on the hybrid armour before he'd executed the kill program. Around him the Manhunter Force Field was convulsing. He cursed. The feedback from the three dimensional combined imagining monitor and control interface was confused. Lex concluded Live Wire's Metagenic powers were over tasking the alien technology. At the same time the interaction was binding the two together. Luthor had no expectation the barrier would hold. Bane was down. Deathstroke's actions defied logic, but the mercenary's reputation defined him. Bound by brutal and inflexible code of honour he was not a simple gun for hire. Luthor had little interest in his reasons. Method was another matter. This assassin had used the tools he'd given him most effectively. Julianna Sazia battle armour had taken damage, hit by targeted fire. Deathstroke had exploited weaknesses the infiltrator had identified before switching his allegiances. Luthor had to count her out as ineffective. Her battle armour was powering down.

Lex weighed his options, and with grim certainty he engaged another programme. Mechanical Manhunter technology encased the industrialist inventor in hybrid alien armour. The sections clicked together like an elaborate mechanised jigsaw puzzle. Once encased Luthor killed the shield. Live Wire snapped free, collapsing to the pearl coloured floor. She was out of the game too.

His distinctive green and purple the battles suit was all the more identifiable by a chrome pink dome imitating life atop of the gas mask like face assembly. That and a LL motif on his chest. Lex was anything but subtle. The suit bequeathed added mass. Extending his limbs. Powered hands and feet at the extremis, around a barrel like torso. In front of his eyes a heads-up display mapped the position of the combatants, and confirmed the Manhunters Proprietary Technology – the tiny, by human standards, engine that drove the Team Lex Armour was operating at full power. It was something he must protect at all costs.

The beautiful shell floor reverberated with the sound of rocket-like motors firing from multiple locations across the suits surface. Luthor power vaulted into the fray. Crashing loudly back onto the shell floor. A figure leapt clear from his path. He ignored the Terminator. His target was not the Mercenary. Deathstoke was engaged by the self appointed Cheetah, Barbara Minerva. Her choice was to bring her bladed claws, matching themselves against the deadly blade of her opponent.

Lex wondered about the blades construction, it had found a weak point in the Bayeux Killers armour, where there should have been none.

"Cheetah! Stop playing with him." Lex barked over the comm channel. "I didn't equip these suit with canon for you to rely on the gimmicks. Kill him. There isn't a public gallery to impress." Luthor turned his attention to the others. "Cole, Winslow don't be coy. Press your assault. Now!"

"Easy for you to say." Winslow snapped back. "I know what toys Deathstroke packs as a matter of habit."

Cole laughed across the comm. "Weapons you sold him Toyman?"

"Less banter more barrage." Luthor ordered. "Follow my lead." Lex added. From his signature purple and green battle armour a rapid blast of machine gun fire from integral rifle barrels built into his forearms spat the hybrid bullet-grenades. His target Lois Lane.

"Lets see if the Terminator really wants you to live." He asked – his voice coming over a loud speaker.

Lois paid him no heed save action. Leaping away his Ex-girlfriend was utlaising a portion of jettisoned Team Luthor armour as a makeshift shield.

Luthor swore at her, for the reporters movements partially were camouflaged by the fiery blasts from his own ordinance. She had acquired a gun, no doubt from the Mercenary.

"What now little lady?" Lex asked. "Are we playing at soldiers like daddy. Which of the Kings Musketeers are you."Luthor laughed. He knew her, and her love for Alexander Dumas' fable.

Lois looked over the breastplate she had dragged with her. Lex noted her amplified strength.

She shouted up at him. "No Musketeer. I'm a Gazetteer!"

With that his armour received a number of bullet strikes. Each ineffectual.

"Now you are mine." Luthor stated.

Lois inexplicably smiled.

It was an empty boast that Lex regretted almost at once. His suit was rocked off its broad feet by a sonic blast. Lex realised the Girl Reporter – the Gazetteer, had played him. Lois had distracted him long enough for another to attack. Scraping across the floor he saw his suspicions confirmed. His targeting system flashed errors, power levels fluctuated. Luthor knew of only one human voice that could be deployed as such an effective weapon. For that was the evidence of his best apps' replaying the moment back and back again. Dinah Lance of Black Canary had just proven at last that she was more than a rock chick, much more.

Luthor fought the controls. The powered suit staggered onto its knees fighting as the Black Canary's scream continued. It was like being in a localised tornado rolled into an earthquake. The vibrations shook him to the core, putting his teeth on edge, painfully.

Location information crackled on screen in his helmet display. His allies had chosen this moment to arrive.

"Circe!" he bellowed. "Savage! Du Bois!" His suit recorded new combatants. "I have this." He called out angry, clawing his way through the sonic waves. "Breathe damn you." He spat at the golden haired singer.

Finally her note ended. Luthor rose in his armour, welcoming the respite. Flashes of light across his face told him the battle suit had taken damage, that secondary systems had been engaged. Damage reports streamed down the feedback screen.

Lex was angry. What should have been a simple exercise for Team Luthor had turned into a disaster. Worst of all Luthor was embarrassed. Savage remained an observer. Du Bois disappeared down the escape tunnel as if pursuing Hastor. Lex was too busy to care.

The Witch from the distant past, was very visible. Across the chamber she stood magnificent in red and purple flames. Her magic was beyond science still, and effective.

Luthor realised she was coming to his aid. Fireballs arched toward the black leather clad siren. Dinah Lance leapt clear with all the finesse of an accomplished martial artist. Luthor followed her, noting her unexpected skill set. He succeeded in overriding the suits damaged auto targeting. Luthor smiled as his weapons came back online. He used chemical fire. Flame throwers spurted hot and orange. Indiscriminate and wide ranging. "Who needs targeting." Luthor spat.

An alarm demanded his attention. Team Luthor was suffering unexpected loss.

Silent green arrows had cut the air, hitting the Toy Man and the Collector. Arrows should have been ineffective. These were not. Each exploded. There was a flash of bright light, and crackle of static. Luthor's computer aggregated data from the individual suits. Hence the alarm.

Breaking off from his pursuit of the two women, Lex recognised why Cole and Winston struggled as if fitting on the floor. Their suits were shorting out.

The genius in Luthor guessed at the cause. A chemical explosion driving a targeted electro-magnetic pulse. Someone had spent a lot of energy and money developing a smart weapon capable of attacking Manhunter technology. Luthor had to admire the simplicity of it. No electrical signal, no chemical propellent, naturally stealthy. These qualities ensured the bow was still a favourite of special forces across the world. The Emerald Archer had taken this stone age technology and reinvented it for the era of Metahumans and alien life forms.

Luthor was conflicted. He was a scientist, an engineer, an inventor and an industrialist. He was a child of revolution, enlightenment, and engines. Now as his armour creaked and complained around about him, Lex now looked to magic for his salvation. Team Luthor had fallen before it's first proper step. Now Lex counted on the supernatural fire from Circe's light. She burned untarnished, an impossible beautiful dark candle.

Yet suddenly she was enveloped in an impossible rain storm. Luthor searched for a cause, and his camera's located a woman in a Top Hat, and the realisation that there was another magic user in play. It didn't make sense. The Living Ship was supposed to sense the approach of Magic users, and metahumans. Yet somehow their enemies had slipped inside unnoticed.

"Luthor." The passionless voice of the Manhunters Collective was unmistakable as they override all other comm channels.

"What? I'm busy." He replied shooting explosive rounds at the Singer. "To think I paid you to perform at my Birthday." He roared.

"Luthor. We believe you have been dishonest." The Manhunter voice declared.

As Luthor felt the onslaught of the Canary Cry once more. He shouted. "What do you mean?"

"We have located unknown – alien - technology in your city of Metropolis."

-8-

Dark shadows covered Metropolis. Even the city of the future over lit neon bright streets could banish the oppressive shadow of the vast city sized space going organism. The Manhunters living ship proclaimed her masters benevolent mission. Broadcasting on all channels. "Truth and Justice have come to your world. No man escapes the Manhunters."

Bright beams of light shone from the belly of the gravity defying leviathan. Dancing around the city, alighting on roof tops and streets. There was no discernible pattern. It seemed to the frightened populous that the spacecraft was searching for something or perhaps someone. Gradually the beams converged, others blinked out. Those that remained shone on a building in the Business park adjacent to Metropolis Harbour. Swaddling the area in light. Not far from the former Luthor-Corp Lab ruin, stood an older piece of modernism. A legacy building, The Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories, Metropolis, was a city landmark. S.T.A.R Labs could be found around the world, yet the Meersman Trust had begun its work here in the City of Tomorrow during the glory days of imagination driven retro-futurism, looking forward to a new century with flying cars and nuclear powered vacuum cleaners.

Trench coat and brown Fedora crowned a pepper and salt hair, serious full face weathered by countless war zones and global trouble spots. Orange fire burned bright, a lit cigar. "What are you doing here kid, didn't I tell you to go home?" Perry White asked James Olsen. Hissing the question as an angry whisper.

The young flame haired photo-journalist turned surprise writ large over his face. "Chief?"

"Don't call me Chief." Perry mumbled. He was tired. Too tired to complain. "You're out past curfew."

"Where's Cat?" Jimmy asked. "Did she reach Sarah Charles?"

Perry nodded. "No moss growing on you huh?"

"I followed the lights." Jimmy said. It wasn't much of an explanation. Perry grudgingly acknowledged this young man was making one hell of a reporter.

"Hard to miss, and hardly surprising," Perry blew a smoke ring. Stubby digit stabbed upwards, "that our visitors to Big Apricot would demonstrate an interest in S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Cat's still inside." Perry added. Gesturing to the Star Labs building. He hoped Catherine Grant, his inside contact at the Daily Planet Newspaper's parent company, New conglomerate WGBS was okay. "How did you know..."

"That she'd called you about something going down at S.T.A.R. Labs." Olsen finished his sentence. "I have sources."

"Hmmph." Perry snorted. "James Oslen has sources now."

"It's no secret Sarah and Cat are friends." Jimmy replied as he peered through his camera, swinging the impressive Waynetech telephoto lens up and at the Leviathan above.

Perry watched the lights converge into one wide beam that lit up the S.T.A.R. Labs complex.

"Mr White. I can see something, movement on the ship's hull." Jimmy's voice tailed off uncertain.

Perry squinted. He didn't have to wait long for Olsen to be proved correct.

The startling proboscis like protrusion extended from the centre of the ship tumbled towards the concrete and steel modernist cathedral to science. Where the purple pink tube bisected the sprawling Art-Nouveau complex walls crumbled. The huge circular ridged tube swallowed the main building completely. Like a vast alien skyscraper it appeared to connect the hovering vessel to the Earth. Swallowing S.T.A.R. Labs in the process.

Perry didn't hesitate. Jimmy followed. The older man said as they ran. "Stick close. I know a back door."

"How do we get through that.. thing." Jimmy pointed at the alien construct.

"We don't." Perry said. Ducking down some steps he led the way to the underground car-park. "We go under it."

-8-

"General Lane."

Sam turned to the speaker. Above them the main bank of screens monitored the clash between the Manhunters and the Allied Amazon Assault Team. Here deep beneath the Nations Capital, the US Military watched and waited. He leant over the desk and looked at the monitor. "Go ahead son." He told the young officer.

"I'm getting reports in from several international stations of Alien ships breaking away from their stations above urban centres."

"Not here." Lane looked up that Washington Sky. There the vast craft had risen from the close roof scraping position to a higher vantage point.

"The Aliens are leaving the Atmosphere." A voice confirmed from across the floor. Adding "New York station however reports their visitor has entered the ocean – and not of it's own choice."

Lane recalled the Atlantean attack, led by the gigantic Octopus. "Open Channels to Posideonis. See if we can speak to His Majesty, the King of the Seas. Maybe they know what the hell is going on."

The 44th President looked tired, his dark features drawn. His expression serious. "It's hard to compete with a Head of State who still leads his forces into battle."

"Your not Superman." General Lane replied.

"Mr President Sir!" An aide to the POTUS appeared, tablet computer in hand. "The Manhunter Collective wishes to speak to you."

Lane watched, his Commander in Chief was seated to his right. Placed before a monitor where the video stream from the Alien Androids was connected. The blue face flickered on screen, with all the life of stone statue.

Then from his left another man cursed. "Hell – NASA is reporting activity above the Atmosphere. Explosions." Another shouted. "Damn." He coughed. "Europe has gone dark."

The General hustled over the bank of monitors dedicated to NATO. "What the hell?" Lane whispered as he saw the lack of any signs of life. His heart beat faster.

"I can't raise Germany or the UK." The technician replied. His voice high pitched in panic and fear.

"Is it an attack – what's the seismographs saying?" Lane shouted to another station.

"Negative Sir." Came the response. "No signs from the ground."

Across the room the President was speaking to the machine collective via the video conference call.

Lane turned his attention back to the face of the Manhunter who indicated he was in command of the Spacecraft above Washington D.C.

"I assure you this attack on your vessel does not originate with my administration." The President said. "As I understand it you have attacked the Amazon Nation, and they have retaliated."

"That is not is clear." The blue face was without emotion. An expressionless mask. "Be assured once this matter is dealt with we will investigate. If you are complicit – you will be punished. No Man escapes the Manhunters."

"That sounds like a threat?" The President responded.

"It is.."

The Manhunter's words were cut off mid sentence, literally.

Lane saw his Commander in Chief move. It was instinct. The President flinched as the machines head disappeared from screen, cleaved at neck from the body by a sword. A second blade tore through the torso from groin to shoulder halving the remains. Bright sparks flashed, the picture became unclear.

There was the sound of a breakers yard, as metal was demolished off screen. In the place of the blue metal faced machine was the perfection of the Amazon Queen. Still beautiful if dishevelled and splattered in goo and dark oil.

"We have taken this vessel." Hippolyta confirmed. "The plan is in motion."

A shadow crossed her path. The Amazon's swords danced again. There was an explosive hiss, and a gelatinous goo slid down the screen.

Then everything went dark. Screens died, lights went out.

"EMP!" a voice cried out.

"Back up systems!" Lane shouted. "So that's it." He added, looking to the Nato Station. It made sense now.

"What's happening?" The President asked him.

"It looks like the space war above us just went nuclear." Lane replied.

-8-

Anton Hastor ran from the sound of conflict echoing down the corridor behind him. The older scientist had no inclination to fight alongside Luthor or the others. That was their business. Hastor valued his life to highly.

The old man let out a scream of surprise. Hastor slipped and fell. The corridor was slick with goo. Anton raised his hands, sticky with the translucent fluid, he looked into the shadows and saw the face of a Hawk.

Shiera hung above him, held aloft by bronze feathered wings. Between them a brutal axe mace, its sharp edges glistening wet.

Beyond the corridor was blocked by a glassy ball whose circumference was almost the same as the walkway.

There was a sound of an impact, a squelch and a splash. Hawkman emerged through the larger than man sized sphere. As he did so this translucent balloon exploded, sending liquids of various viscosity around about him. The Nth Metal energy that coursed through his body no doubt protecting him from the otherwise corrosive digestive juices that Hastor felt nibbling at his own skin.

"This living ship has very persistent internal defences." Carter Hall said. Turning he despatched another of the rolling spheroid guardians. "Like White Blood Cells." Shiera said as the following balloon tried and failed to engulf her mate.

Anton Hastor saw an opportunity. His hand slipped to the Nth Metal dagger at his waist. Around him his clothes fell away into the spilt goo. Revealing his emancipated frame.

He was too slow, and his captor was ever watchful. Hastor saw the contempt in Hawkgirl's eyes.

"You have lived too long old man." Shiera told him. "Leave your blade be."

"I,.." He spluttered.

She spoke over him. "You shouldn't have rejected nature. This alliance with Savage and the others, it has cost you too much." Her mace pinned the blade to his body. "Your strength is spent Hath-Set."

"You remember?" Hastor wheezed. He made no attempt to hide his shock. Hawkgirl had recognised him - used his ancient Egyptian name. The man he had been in a previous life. Thousands of years ago. Struggling against the preternatural strength of the winged woman he asked. "You have found each other - how?"

Shiera smiled at him, "oh Hath-Set, Hastor – can't you see how happy I am at being reunited with my Prince Khofu. His Princess Chay-Ara. How delighted we are to be united with the treacherous Priest who murdered us in search of immortality."

"We both remember how you killed two lovers." Carter Hall declared. "Murdered with that very blade." Hawkman pointed to the knife at his waist. "We died close by, under the shadow of the Pyramids of Giza."

"You betrayed us here." Shiera told him. "Yes now we _both_ remember. The First and every time you have killed us since - every time fate saw us reborn, separated by chance, then by design – by your bloody hand. "

"Your new found immortality has a high price old man." Carter Hall declared. "So very high – and you don't even know it."

"Don't I?" Hastor spat. Saying. "How did you do this – hide yourselves from me?" Anton Hastor nee Hath-Set demanded.

Rising from Shiera's wings came a silver sphere. "That was me." The globe replied. Hastor shielded his eyes as the light burned ever brighter – growing larger, until it was blinding.

"I am Doctor Fate." The voice continued. Fate took form. Hath-Set recognised the legendary golden Helm of Nabu, a full face helmet shaped like a flattened bullet. This shone like the sun, and Fate's golden cloak was like molten metal flowing from it, beneath this sun was the sky blue of a woman's body as if painted with azure silk.

"Inza Nelson?" Hath-Set growled. "How is it possible, you both died, you and your husband."

"Kent lives – as I live." Doctor Fate replied. "We have all come home to Egypt."

"Have you any idea what you have done?" Anton Hastor cried out.

"I know. I see." Fate replied. "Your compact with Cronus will not stand."

From a barely perceptible shadow came a haunting voice. "Agent of Order." Like mist the darkness spread and grew taking human form.

"Agent of Chaos." Fate replied.

Hastor turned and thanked the old gods, for the blood red robes of the Vampire Louis Du Bois.

"Save me." He cried.

"Death comes to all life." The undead Priest declared. His hand extended turning slowly at the wrist.

Hastor looked into the black eyes set with the porcelain face of the age old Vampire. He needed no confirmation. "No" Anton Hastor cried out even as his own Nth Metal dagger was grabbed by invisible magic fingers, and dragged through his body, eviscerating him. Spinning bloody into the waiting grasp of his ally.

As his life slipped away, and curses in countless languages, the currency of countless lives slipped from his lips Hastor watched the Vampire return to mist even as Doctor Fate's fiery Anhk Crosses tore towards the Red Monk, taking with him the precious Nth Metal blade, and his life.


	31. Chapter 31

Barry Allen accelerated through the Big Apple. For the Flash time appeared to slow down. Cosseted by the Speed Force. A preternatural energy that permeated his very being. Enabling and protecting.

The vast living vessel over New York was attacked. A gigantic Cephalopod, the Titan of the Deep Topo the Octopus did the bidding of his King, Aquaman. As beast wrestled beast the Atlantean forces had attacked. The Android's war horse had countered. Chemical flame bursting forth from the Manhunter's living vessel. Projectiles made from the same incredible space going organic material as the shell hull. Most of this ordinance fell on or around target, the Atlantean Marines. Inevitably there was collateral damage.

The normal world was the minute hand of an analogue clock. Save for objects that moved faster-than-the- human-eye-could-see; supersonic flight, the speeding bullet - each slug was like watching the second hand, ticking through space. Waiting to be plucked from the air like so much ripe fruit. The sky above was thick with smoke churning like black treacle. Outside the bubble munitions exploded. To Barry they were like so much falling confetti, and drifting leaves, buffeted on winds of lazy flames.

For the people running scared in the streets the sight was sudden, the noise alarming. Flashes that made them flee screaming in terror. Barry was a ghost unseen as he dashed through the war zone. Slowing to a blur to help. Such was a hero's calling. Snatching people from falling buildings and putting out fires by suffocation. Sucking the air away from the hungry flames, using his raw speed to create tornado like up drafts. Each pocket of trouble interrupted his mission objective, but the Flash could not run past on the other side.

His target lay across the water of New York Harbour and past Lady Liberty. Beyond on the waters of the Atlantic from whence came Atlantis, led by her King and Queen. The eight arms of the beast called Topo held fast the alien ship from the stars. The sea itself seemed to make war against the invader. Which was true enough as Aquaman's wife, Mera Queen of Atlantis, was by the power of imagination able to form constructs using water. Proving the metal of an incompressible liquid. Mera magically accelerated the sea. Great aquatic hammer blows of tremendous force. Battering the shell of the vast ship forcing it further from shore, forcing it beneath the waves.

Slipping gravity's fingers as easily as the Flash walked on water, Barry stepped up the slick wet shell of the Leviathan. Ducking unseen the invisible man of motion entered through the disputed portal into the interior of the Living Space Ship. Necessary only because the Flash was following the tide of battle to find the King of Seas.

Barry Allen ran with purpose, he was not accustomed to being late.

First the Flash moved through the sea of Atlantean soldiers instinctively. The speed force easing his passage, making him insubstantial as a ghost. Zigzagging around, over and under obstacles, until Barry's path was blocked.

Vibrating his body down to the molecular level Barry Allen was able to pass through otherwise solid objects. Choosing this course took a split moment of a fraction of time. To touch assess and match the vibrational frequency necessary required a pause to think.

The alien ship was a living thing. The Martian Manhunter had communicated what the League had learned about the invasion and the Manhunter's master plan; Protocol 666, to Barry along with his part in the mission. The barrier ahead was likewise alive. Allen was scientist by trade. A Forensic Technician with Central City Police Department in his other life sans mask. He recognised the communality between this wall, made of gelatinous spheres and an immune system, only magnified many times. From this dam individual defenders burst forth moving like huge cannon balls. They launched attacks that swallowed the unwary whole, such was there size that a standard humanoid was easily ingested. The Flash recognised that to proceed it was now necessary to step through the Ships internal defenders.

As Barry vibrated his form becoming less than substantial he slipped through the living barrier. Inside the balloon like structures he saw them in motion, moving through each other. Membranes merging, the gelatinous contents migrating, emerging on the other side. Hence when balloon fell, punctured at the front on the blade of an Atlantean weapon, another defender slid into it's place. Yet others moved backwards through the living barrier. The Flash saw their grim cargo as he passed through. The bodies of brave Atlanteans, moving from cell to cell, and being digested as they did so.

"Arthur." The Flash declared himself, slowing. The Sea King thrust an egg shaped metal orb into Barry's hands. "Where have you been?" He asked.

"You can't drag an alien Spacecraft into the Atlantic without there been some collateral damage on shore." Barry replied.

"You stopped to help." Arthur Curry stated. Barry shrugged and nodded, even now his speed rendered the motions so jerky they would have in less tortuous circumstances appeared comical. "We need reinforcements this side of that damn barrier." Aquaman said. His hands twisting the gold 'egg' so that the top and the bottom halves counter turned one against the other. There was a click.

Barry didn't read Atlantean, but he recognised the ancient cuniform as writing. More over the digital read out needed no real translation, it was a counter, and it was counting down.

"We'll continue to do our part." Arthur said. "You do yours." His words spoken as a King, a man well used to being obeyed, were fast left behind by Barry. The Flash ran back into the living barrier, and then back out again. Unseen he sped past the Sea King. Arthur pressed his attack against the Ships defences, tearing into the reinforcements coming to fortify the barrier against his infecting army.

Within the damn of spheres the Atlantean Grenade the Flash had place a brief moment before exploded, the damn fell, torn apart from the centre. Now Arthur's troops would push deeper into the vast interior of the living spacecraft.

Barry hoped the noise of their assault would be enough.

Human science had recognised that Substance K radiation was a trigger for the Metagene. His own experience demonstrated that in rare cases extreme events had the same effect. His speed manifested the night lightning had struck him triggering a chemical fire in his lab. Barry's own research demonstrated superpowers created a unique detectable energy signature. Jo J'Onzz had indicated these Living Ships could measure these fluctuations. Active metahumans were on the Leviathan's Radar. Although the Speed Force mitigated his energy signature effect just as it depreciated the physics of a human being moving at incredible speeds, it didn't eliminate it completely. The Manhunters had access to technology so advanced it appeared magical. Thus this vessel just might be able to hear the whisper of his passing – providing it was listening. The League's plan was simple, and Barry hoped his mad dash through the spacecraft would be lost amongst the noise created by the more visible Atlantean assault.

-8-

Olympus shattered. The white ivory towers, the palatial buildings, the gardens burst, geysers sent waters pouring forth making rainbows. Rain that fell onto the black waters of chaos below. The mountain broke apart like a giant egg. Fire burned, rock bubbled molten and hot. From the tumult arose Zeus. Spreading a vast aegis about his shoulders like black wings. Appearing as a phoenix-like, an Eagle arising from the flames. Beneath the star spangle cape the king of the gods revealed his subjects, his family, sisters, brothers, wife, and children. Glittering constellations under the leather of his cloak. Around his waist was wound a golden cord, that ran from him to Hera his Queen, then to armoured Athena, around proud Apollo shining like burnished bronze. To Bloody Ares, and the Hunched and hammer wielding Heaphestus, joined to them both was the divine beauty of Aphrodite. Bound to Zeus was Hermes with his Heralds staff in hand and at the other side stood Artemis with bow in hand and an arrow set against her drawstring. Hestia held onto the golden cord as she sat beside the flames that licked around Zeus's feet. Demeter stood below her brother's right shoulder her hand holding her torch aloft so it burned behind his head, her kings hair appeared like flames. His crown a halo.

Diana was dwarfed by Machine-god Cronus. In turn Cronus was equally dwarfed by the Mountain Citadel of Olympus, made man in the person of Zeus and his tethered children.

"Father?" Zeus boomed. His greeting turned to laughter. "I think not." The king of the gods grasped a blue flint sickle in his hand, he raised this up between them.

"I cut my father down, I cut him to size." Zeus said.

"You cleaved me in two, gave my vitality to Hades, let my tears be his wine, and my will – that you cast adrift thrust into the depths of the deepest dark, into the cold embrace of the goddess Nyx. There my will drifted at the edge of reality, the farthest darkest deepest lost corner of the universe."

Diana watched as Zeus raised the sickle above his head. The curve of the blade was greater in size than the giant Machine-god.

"You are not my father." Zeus roared.

"I am more." Cronus screamed back, and in that same moment the crown of his head and his hands and feet became spears of black bronze shot from him by a growing twisting metal rope, propelling the blades away, past Diana, outwards through the void.

Something very old touched her mind through the golden lariat, something darker, older even than the Machine-god's lost soul. Hidden even from the power of her Magic Lasso until now.

Patience and cold ancient hatred hardened vengeance.

Could Zeus be right? She wondered. Could Cronus the Machine-god be more than he seemed, more than he had professed to be?

Blades struck target.

Diana saw them fly away from Cronus, five harpoons, but not toward the Olympians, rather at the Leviathan ships that had accompanied the Machine-god through the trans-dimensional rift. The harpoons metal barbs buried themselves into the meat of five of these living vessels. Targeting the largest leviathan from Cronus' Armada. Diana guessed this tactic had been preplanned. Each sacrificial spacecraft aligned and waiting, but for what exactly? She questioned, and watched an immediate answer reveal itself.

Snapping back to the Machine-god with unexpected fierceness these elastic metal ropes pulled the vast vessels towards the giant golden Manhunter Android.

The remaining Armada climbed away, taking a position far above them, as if afraid of what was about to come.

Diana saw the goddess of Wisdom and Strategy looking towards her. Athean nodded an unspoken confirmation. Wonder Woman obeyed her god-mother, and followed the Armada's lead. Falling upwards and away, her magical lariat spinning out to impossible lengths in her hands. Diana refused to release Cronus, even now. She needed to understand, to anticipate and plan.

There was a collision of Leviathan and Gilded Machine-god.

Zeus struck.

The vast sickle cut through shell hulls, through the soft meat of the living vessels. Zeus found fire. Flames burst golden from the heart of conflagration of Machine-god and his servant animals.

Diana witnessed the unholy sacrifice. She felt the darkness at the heart of the matter reaching out to her through her Lasso. Beneath her this sacrificial inferno had become a writhing mass of fiery maggots, wriggling in ball of flame. It all fell away from Zeus's sickle weapon. Tumbling into the black waters. White waves crashed outwards.

Chaos for a brief moment reigned. The deep boiled.

"Iron has been bathed in blood and plunged into the sea." Hepheastus said to his father.

His mother Hera looked across at her crippled son, no love was lost. "You would know all about forging abominations."

"He must not draw on the magic of the waters." Hera declared.

Zeus acted. The King of the gods extended his hand, and he took his sister by the arm and she sailed around him like child in the hands of exuberant uncle. Demeter's torch burned brighter still. Rising she sailed above the god mountain's head. From her skirts seeds rained down on the sea. As she span around the head of Zeus Demeter was now nothing but a blur. At the same time the sky became golden with kernels of corn, falling like rain onto the chaotic sea. As each seed touched the turbulent water the corn drank the black in, growing, many times its original size. These exploding seeds bursting. First came the flashes of green sprouting light. Other colours followed. The seas vanished in myriad of rainbows as Demeter fell into the arms of her brother, the King of the gods.

Only the boiling point where Cronus had fallen remained. A whirling pool, swirling into him, as the Machine-god sucked the last black and white foaming seas into himself.

Wonder Woman recognised a battle of gods fought with magic metaphor, and the fight had only begun. Diana wrestled with cold dark, an icy chill that crept into her heart through the metal of the golden lariat. From the darkness below. Cronus threatened to reel her in, a fish caught on a line by her own golden rope. Pulling her into the icy spray from the vortex, dragging her closer. Truth forced her her hand. She let Cronus go. The Machine-god feel deeper into the chaotic watery pit. It was as if Wonder Woman had been some kind of anchor, holding him back, stopping his fall.

Diana could only snatch the golden Lasso back to herself. A bright gold light. Out of the darkness her chain snapped back to her, in that moment imparting a vision of truth.

For a long moment there was silence from the oozing mud, a black scar on the green fields created by Demeter's magic bounty.

Then there was movement, a vast armoured hand emerged. The Machine-god reformed crawled from the muddy hole, like a corpse rising from a grave. Reforged from his golden Android metal and shining shells of the Leviathans, he sucked the remaining water to himself, leaving the earth dry, cracked and lifeless. His face was a blue mask of fiery blue Sapphire.

Yet Diana's vision of the truth had been clear – Chronus the Machine-god was gone. In his place stood a larger giant, a greater evil. One that had utilised the organic bodies of the great spacecraft to rebuild the Machine god into something more. What had been alive was now dead, married to machinery that had never lived.

This was the truth Diana sensed. The horror of the undead giant.

"Abomination of Abominations!" Zeus hissed. "There is no life in you. You are undead and the never alive."

Zeus stood on the green vital carpet, with his dysfunctional family around him. United in necessity, together they faced a giant that equalled Zeus. A monster made up of the dead and lifeless metal. Stood on parched and lifeless ground, cracked earth.

"Ha!" The Undead thing cried. Its torso opened like a treasure chest revealing inside a kaleidoscope of bright lights imprisoned in darkness. Now released, they swarmed together a fiery rainbow. This jewel stream arched forth, a snake of many colours, with as many heads.

Heads of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and indigo.

A red beast like the Minotaur of old slain by ill fated Theseus. Bulls Horns, bulls head, dagger teeth and talons. Red blood vomiting from its mouth.

A orange beast the most snake like of all, a face of a horned viper fused with a king cobra, jealous eyes burned with hunger.

A yellow beast like no other, a chimera of the terrifying, from the depths of the ocean to those of the verdant forest where the Preying Mantis dines on its mate, where the Parasitic Wasp is born from the still living caterpillar.

A green sea horse like a toothed whale, the denizen of the deep that feasts on the gigantic squid, or the packs of Orca who will kill their own kin, the biggest beast on the face of the earth. A single tusk like a lance rises from this sea unicorn's nose.

A blue bird. Hooked horned beak, long talons, her wings beating as if to break free from the rainbow chimera, whose tail is lost in the entrails of the undead giant.

An Indigo Cephalopod, many arms flaying in a cloud of misty ink around a sharp beak, armed with teethed suckers.

A violet violent dragon, horned, toothed, and taloned. A terrible primal lizard.

Holding onto this beast with his right hand the undead giant used the creature like a whip, albeit one that arose from out his own guts.

Together the seven headed hydra smashed into Zeus. The king of gods, closes his vast aegis-cloak around himself and his family. It is enough to save them, but not enough to resist the cataclysmic blow from the undead beast's innards.

This pocket universe shakes. Olympus falls, as gods together they tumble down, fallen onto the green of Elysian Fields.

Diana feels real fear. In that moment she imagines all is lost. Then Wonder Woman spies within the protective apron of the aegis-cloak, the hand of Zeus. Diana's gods role backwards across the green fields that had risen from the black chaotic waters. Emerging together, nine gods and their towering mountain of a King.

There is crash of thunder, lightning flies out from Zeus's fingers. The King of the gods rages. He brings down fire on the undead giant and the seven headed ten horned hydra.

Around his feet and those of his family flowers arise from the green where ever the gods feet fall.

They stand together. Ten of the Twelve Olympians.

"Call your elder brothers home my son." The undead beast roared – the sapphire Android face filled with emotion, like no Manhuter, filled with hate and rage. "Call Hades and Poseidon to these newly sprouted Elysian Fields."

Diana's hunters eye caught sight of tiny fire, a flame kindled amongst the green of the rolling hills of this magic land.

Hestia's hearth never died, her flame burned ever constant- always the heart of Olympus the home of the gods. The goddess was watching her. Hestia drew from her fire a golden thread. Diana felt herself pulled to the goddess like a puppet on string, drawn into and through the mystical flames to side of modest keeper of the gods estate, of Olympus and all that entailed.

Stood like a child's pocket doll in the goddesses hand, Wonder Woman wondered what use a mortal could be.

"Come sister to arms." Athena cried. Her voice like thunder above her. Yet it was as if she was speaking to me, Diana thought. Beyond the Seven headed Hydra Chimera rose, a vast serpent ready to strike again.

"Very Well." Zeus boomed. He was greater still. A giant among giants. Athena, Hestia, Aphrodite, Artemis and Hera towered above Diana, along with Apollo, Bloody Ares, and Hepheastus; Zeus was a mountain, dwarfing them. His hands filled with lightning crackled and from the green lands of Elysium cloaked in far arose the flame haired god of the underworld Hades, clothed in shadow, skin like smoke, eyes like coals. Hades stood on his brothers left. At Zeus's right hand formed the glassy visage of Poseidon. A mountain of water made from the mists, drawn from the clouds. Water that teemed with life, great beasts of deep, to vast shoals of tiny fish, suspended within the body of the god like some giant aquarium. From the sun lit green of his hair cascading to white rapid waters down his back on shoulders to the deep blackness of his feet, the colour of the abysmal depths.

"We three defeated our father." Zeus roared his hand extend the sickle into the faces of the Hyrda Chimera of seven heads and ten horns. "We shall defeat you false god, imposter!"

"I need another throne if I am to marry again." Hades voice was an echo of thunder, and all the more blood curdling for that. "I think you will suffice. I shall place you beside the body of my father."

"You will have that brother." Poseidon's voice whistled like scream of the hurricane. "For we outnumber him."

"You think?" The undead giant laughed. "Must I lecture you my children, have you forgotten?

"Olympus is a realm filled with vital magic. As below so it is above."

Diana stood above the eternal flame of Hestia's eternal Hearth, on the upturned palm of a god. She saw the Living ships of the Armada sink down, falling like huge leaves onto the green of Demeter's bounty.

"That's why I'm here." The undead giant declared. "To harvest the Elysian Fields."

The Leviathan's touched the virgin grass. Magic coursed through each living vessel. Just as the chaotic waters had been drunk by the Machine-god to forge this undead giant, the magically new garden born of Demeter's seed infused these ancient space going beasts with new vital life.

"I'm here to feast! To strip mine the mountain of Olympus." The undead Machine-god roared.

The change was immediate. Like a turtle emerging from its shell, the uniform arrow shaped vessels hulls sprouted limbs and heads. The metamorphosis continued, from mutant space terrapin, these veterans of the Battle of the Planets - the Great Galactic War, took the form a giant warriors, like their even more gigantic undead master, armoured knights. Some with faces like beasts in the European tradition. Others ghoulish masks of terror in the fashion of the Samurai.

Hestia placed Wonder Woman on the green grass littered as it was with flowers around the goddesses feet. Diana felt the Olympian Magic surge through her.

Instinct took over. Like a whirlwind she span around on that spot she sparked, rising upwards, becoming a tornado of colour. The next moment she stood dressed in the remainder of her armour given by her god-mothers. Sword in her right hand. Shield on her left. Her helm burned with a magical flaming plume. Turning she looked at Athena. Their eyes met. She stood as tall as the goddess whose armour she wore.

"Welcome sister. Today Champion of Olympus you are one of us."

"More than that," Hestia added. "You are the best of us."

Zeus roared. "For Olympus!" The Royal Trinity of Kings moved as one and struck at the undead giant. Heavens, Hades, and the Seas, thunder and lightning, fire and smoke, angry waters.

There was explosion of elements as the enemy staggered back. The undead Machine-god fell to the green turf, releasing his creatures. Diana watched as the great dragon was divided into seven beasts. Each grew all the larger as they too touched the Elysian Fields.

Like loyal hounds the seven defended their fallen master.

Three gods faced seven monsters snapping jaws.

The undead giant laughed as he rose from his knees. Around him the army of strange knights, born from the space going Leviathan charged forward.

Diana ran beside Athena and the other gods, the thirteenth Olympian.

The goddess of Wisdom said to her. "Sister the war for the magic of the lost Golden Age had truly begun."


	32. Chapter 32

John Henry Irons, named after the Steel Driving Man of American Legend, was in reality every bit as massive as imagination painted his mythic namesake.

For the youth who watched him work alongside her father, Silas Stone, Irons was a strong man of the old school. Victoria didn't like his stoicism, his quiet gravity. Determined in his manners, and very deliberate. His skin as black as cast metal, his eyes as bright as the blacksmith's forge.

But that wasn't the root of the enmity she felt.

It was the way he'd stolen her father. They weren't lovers. It might have been easier to understand if that had been the reason Silas Stone was never home. Why her dad had missed her Last Decathlon Competition, yet again. Instead Silas and John shared a peculiar passion, an obsession. The Science of the Impossible. Here at Metropolis S.T.A.R. Labs they worked seeking answers to the rise in inexplicable phenomenon and the Metahumans.

"You weren't there." Victoria had said. She'd stood there full of anger, fit to burst, her tone accusing. That had been their last argument. He'd missed her compete.

"How fast can you run the hundred metres?" He'd asked. "Around eleven seconds probably." He'd continued. I know you're good. The worlds best sprinters can run at best about twenty three miles per hour, for about ten seconds, there is a Red who can run so fast he breaks the sound barrier, upper limit unknown - and for as long as he damn pleases."

That had been weeks ago. Since the arrival of the vast Space Ships, her dad hadn't bothered to come home. She'd found a number scribbled on an envelope by her mother. She'd called. They specialised in family law; divorce.

"What I do matters." Vic stated. Her hands made fists. She'd come here to have it out with her dear old dad.

Now Vic was sprawled on the hard plastic floor. It smelled of antiseptic and dust. Only moments ago the research complex had been rocked by an earthquake, or something like it. Before it had gone dark outside, like someone had switched off the lights. Vic remembered that much. How her father Silas had looked up as she'd walked into his lab. His eyes dark around the edges, tired, his temper frayed like his appearance, saying without words, why are you here.

"Sarah let me through." She had told him.

Sarah Charles ran the show here at Metropolis S.T.A.R. Labs. Vic wondered where she was now. The sound of crumbling concrete was ominous. Vic felt dizzy, winded. Perhaps it had been guilt over the hours Silas Stone worked. Maybe she knew the score - whatever the reason Sarah had taken pity on her, pinning a visitor badge on her track suit and escorting her into the heart of the facility. Through security.

They said hi. It wasn't like she hadn't been here before. How else could she ever see her dad.

"Mom is scared." She had told him.

"Metropolis is scared. Everybody is." He'd replied without looking her way. Then the noise, the darkness.

Vic pulled herself up. Emergency lights half illumination cast deep shadows. Dust in the air made things less clear still.

John Henry Irons was across the room, his lab coat was gone, his shirt torn, his bald head bloodied. He'd wrapped a shirt sleeve around the wound in a makeshift field dressing. Large hands found switches, and tapped keys. More lights from various pieces of equipment pierced the gloom, the silence was ended by the thrum and hum of the same machines.

"Are you all right?" Her father asked.

"What happened?"

"Not sure." He answered. "I think the Ship above Metropolis attacked us." His eyes said something else, something like, of all the days to come and see me, why it had to be now?

"We'll be okay." He said. Then as she scowled, her father added. "I've got to get you out of here. Whatever was Sarah thinking."

Irons shouted to them from across the lab. "Containment is breached."

A red light flashed above their heads.

"No!" Silas gasped. Apparently everything else now forgotten, including Victoria. He turned to the steel wall beside them. Inches of Plexi Glass made a single port hole view point. Her father's eyes were fixed on the contents of the chamber.

The dark room was now awash with white light. Vic eye's were drawn to the source. It was hypnotic. At the same time her anger, her resentment at her father's neglect of his family became concentrated on this object. His panic, his visible anxiety over this. It was a symbol of all that was wrong. Silas worshipped this thing like a new god, treat this trinket as if it were his own mother.

Vic's anger gave her a moment of clarity.

Her father was paralysed, entranced. The box moved, appearing like a complicated puzzle toy. Squares moved, circles turned, dancing on its complicated surface. The box appeared to swell and grow. There was a roar like a blast furnace at full pelt, vibrating the steel walls of locked chamber.

Then over the noise Vic heard the voice of Doctor Irons yelling. "For God's sake, run!"

Silas Stone did not hear his friend. Vic pushed her dad away, there was no way her father was going to move himself. He was transfixed. She hit him hard. Years of training, first gymnastics then track and field gave Vic considerable power for her size. Her father fell back stiffly, sprawling then bouncing backwards over a computer console. Falling behind the unit.

The explosion happened that same moment. Vic wanted to look away, to run. She managed was to turn her head, her left eye betrayed her. She looked into the fire.

There was a new sound. "Ping... Ping... Ping..."

-8-

Kansas cut her engines. Superman sensed the change in momentum. The forward view screen was little more than an impenetrable dark, where wisps of purple haze drifted. The Man of Tomorrow's super perception extending beyond the hull of the craft. This wasn't his universe. Passing from the isolated realm of Themyscira with it's tangible undercurrent of magical energies to a place where magic was everything and everywhere.

It was a disconcerting if not unexpected turn of events, the realm of Olympus could be nothing else but magical.

Superman's development from human normal to red letter Metahuman had been exponential. Until his coma, yet even his dreams were revelatory. On awakening the world had snapped into a focus. Remembering his Kryptonian encoded genetic memories, allowed Kal-El to make sense of the kaleidoscopic cacophony of extra information from his super senses. Things invisible to human normals, from infra red to ultra violet, radio waves across all frequencies were all part of his world view. Adding depth and colour to an already vivid world.

Here there were no such rules.

"To boldly go where no Superman has been before." He mused.

"Volatile magical energy detected." Kansas chirped. "Non quantifiable. Attempting to fix relative positions and map a course.

"What does that mean?" Superman asked, shutting out the maddening noise and glare of his extended senses, turning inwards he concentrated on the vast ships tiny crew.

Ganthlet looked up from his ring. The intensity of the green light had changed becoming more vivid. "This is realm is raw magic."

"I don't like magic." Superman noted.

"Don't be so hasty Kryptonian." Ganthlet replied. "Speaking as one who tried to contain magic's chaotic nature, for an aeon, I have learned that like emotions we Guardians have avowed that magic has its place."

"And where is that Guardian?" Faux Lana asked. Breaking her self enforced silence. She rose from her crouch beside Krypto. The dog stepped away, moving cautious and vigilant between her and the Man of Tomorrow. She had changed again.

Green light arced from the Guardians odd ring. Superman had compared this device to those used by the Corps. It was more decorative. Shaped in the form of the power battery itself.

The green fire from Ganthlet danced around the simulacrum of the dead woman. It was unlike a construct of energy, more ethereal in nature.

"It appears leaving the our home dimension has severed the link between this biological-android and the Manhunter Collective. In doing so the conflict arising from her hard coded directives and personality map have been resolved." He paused and then answered her earlier question.

"Magic's place is beyond even the extremes of the emotional spectrum. We have learned it is possible to harness the power of magic, as one might a horse, but even with a bit in her mouth and a rider on his back, a horse still has a mind of its own. So it is with magic."

"So you've brought a magic ring to a magic country?" Lana asked.

Superman understood that the simulacrum of his dead wife possessed a hybrid mind, memories manufactured from Lana Kent, and those of the Manhunters. Freed of the Collective Intelligence of the Androids, had allowed her human personality to come to the fore. Seeing the biological-android being so Lana crystallised his feelings, divorcing the simulacrum from his memories of his late wife, Superman felt at peace with his grief.

Faux Lana continued saying. "The Star Heart Protocol given form." She pointed to the ring on Ganthlet's finger. "Green, manufactured from magical determination concentrated, Will Power compressed, taking form in the heart of Star."

"Which side are you on?" Superman asked.

"After what the Manhunters did to me Clark which side do you think I'm on?"

"Really?" Superman replied. "I want to believe."

"That the monster can turn on Doctor Frankenstein?" She tossed her red hair back across her shoulders. "I know." She said with a smile. "Clark would have hoped too. I know I'm not your Lana, I was just another pawn for the Manhunter Collective to use and sacrifice.

"But I am a person. I want to be free to chose my own destiny." Lana turned to Ganthlet, and with your help Guardian, here and now, I can do it."

Kansas spoke once more. "Determined location of significantly higher levels of magic energies. Setting course. Setting beacon. Transmitting rallying cry to any and all units."

"So it begins." Ganthlet said.

-8-

Diana used her shield. Her sword found it's way through her opponents guard. The Giant reborn from the Space going Leviathan staggered away from her. The point of her weapon piercing the shining shell armour as only a magically forged blade could. There was no respite. The thirteen for Olympus were outnumbered by Undead Machine-god's hordes. Another warrior strode forward. The green of Elysian Fields was wet, red with blood. Combat according to magic rules was never certain, save for it was taxing, and the fallen did not stay dead. Instead they fell and twitched in their death throws all the more violently, as the latent magic of the rolling landscape revived them.

Diana had experience of an enemies who would not stay dead. Her sword arm was strong and direct. She struck the executioners blow. Head from body, bodies from heads.

"At least little sister it slows them down." Athena told her, the goddess of strategy employed the same deadly tactics. "However that is all it does. Death is not an end for these poor creatures, not while they are under the sway of that which claims to be Cronus."

True enough the dismembered were reanimated. Lost limbs searched like ungainly snakes across the bloodied grass, and heads called to lost bodies in wordless screams from breathless mouths. Chance brought the broken ones together, and queer monsters formed from the falleb, bizarre combinations of limbs, bodies and heads, wrongly arranged. These undead creatures lacked the grace and intelligence of their living counterparts, but made up for that in sheer reckless abandon. Throwing themselves into the fray without fear or compunction.

Diana hacked her way through these children of the undead abomination. Through the red mist of battle she saw the green rolling fields of Elysian break. As out of the grass, like a submarine surfacing under an emergency blow, a Leviathan Space Craft burst outwards, throwing up black earth, that in the magical light from above fizzed white like waves of the former sea. As it passed through the substance of the fields the magical forces came into play, the vast vehicle began to change but unlike the first Armada, this solitary ship took on a different form. Cracking open like a seed pod, folding and changing. Rising from the opening came a comet of green flame. Diana's hunters eye peered into the centre of the fiery light.

"I see a Guardian from Oa." Artemis stated. The goddesses hunters gifts were bestowed onto Diana, Wonder Woman said. "It is Ganthlet."

From the ship two other pin prick specks emerged. One man and his dog.

-8-


	33. Chapter 33

Vandal Savage sat in darkness, a primitive clay lamp was centre on an oval antique dinning table. The oil fed flame created a small pool of flickering light. The sole point of illumination. As elsewhere within the Living Space Ship, this chamber was vast, so height and breadth, and other contents were lost to darkness. The lamps simplicity was both stark and beautiful. Unvarnished with two holes, the smaller held the flame.

"This is lamp is of the old gods." Savage said. "Anything spoken within the reaches of its light cannot be overheard." He looked to the Dark Knight. "So you may speak here."

Bruce had come this far, there was every reason to doubt Savage, but no time do so. The Batman explained in detail everything he had shared with Ras Al Ghul. The Demons Head stood at the edge of the magic circle, almost invisible in the gloom. Talia stood between her former lover and her father. He pale flowing dress reflecting what light there was.

Not for the first time Bruce was alone among his enemies.

"Nothing you say surprises me." Savage stated. "I have suspected perfidy on the part of the Manhunters from the outset."

Batman pursed his lips. "So Ras has told me. How Sun Tzu of you. You keep your friends close and your enemies closer, while always taking advantage of the chaos their wars make."

Bruce let Savage know that he had done his research.

"I taught the General Sun all the art he ever knew." Vandal laughed. "Yes I keep my enemies close." He looked to Talia and with animal laugh he said. "But perhaps not as close as you boy eh?"

The Batman did not respond.

Savage stared into the flame "This ship remains loyal." Vandal stated. "Unsurprising since there are Androids with us, but I can tell you that the Manhunters are stretched very thin. Aeons of conflict,and chance accident have depleted the Collective. Most ships have no Machines governing them."

"Hence the pact with Cronus – both the olden god and the Collective seek to increase themselves after aeons of decline." Ras commented.

"How animate of them." Bruce replied.

Savage rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "I suspect that the rebellion is confined to the autonomous vessels. As I intimated where there are Androids this Machine presence demands loyalty, even if they number no more than one."

"How many Manhunters here?" Batman asked.

"Five." Savage replied. "And this their lead vessel." He added with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "As I said they are spread thin – although that is less significant given they are a collective mind."

The Batman leant forward into the light.

"We believe communicating the truth about Protocol 666 to this Leviathan Vessel will tip the balance."

"Perhaps." Vandal acknowledged. "But that is no easy task. First you must sever the Androids uplink to the Ships neural net."

Bruce nodded. "The double cross has always been your speciality."  
Savage roared with laughter. "Too true. I cannot deny I have a hankering for some wanton destruction." His smile vanished. "But second you must communicate with the Androids steed of war – and how I wonder can a mere human speak to this huge alien life-form, when only the Manhunters have the language and the capacity to do so?"

The Dark Knight held out his League Comm device. "With this."

Savage raised a brow in interest.

"If placed in contact with the ships neural core it will create a bridge between the ship and our Manhunter from Mars," Batman concluded, "and Jo J'Onzz can be very persuasive."

-8-

Lex watched in stunned disbelief. Circe retreated, her battle with the Justice League's magician had stalled. Luthor recognised this second sorceress as Las Vegas' famous Zatanna Zatara. Circe hung in space betwixt floor and ceiling. The air crackled with the after-effects of spent incantations from both mages. The flames about Circe hands dimmed, but not the fire in her eyes, this burned only the brighter. Circe was incandescent with rage.

Lex felt confusion, then anger, he hated not knowing. The Toy-man and the Collector's Battle Suits were down, they were so much scrap metal, broken by the Emerald Archers stealthy bolts. He searched for the Green Arrow, but the Justice Leagues magician Zatanna had spoken into existence a low-lying mist that obscured even his infrared camera feed. Adding to his confusion, and all the while he was still in the middle of fight.

Luthor staggered backwards, his limbs flaying to and fro. His Battle Suit resonated with sound and vibration. Heavy blows rained down on him from left and right, above and below. Blunt force as maces struck, wielded by more Metahuman allies of the Justice League; a winged couple. Their feathers whipping up the white magic mist. These Hawk beings carried primitive looking weapons and wore simpler armour, but appearances were deceptive. Hawkman and Hawkgirl deflected the worst that Luthor's advanced weapons delivered and and they gave as good as they got.

"Circe!" He called out in desperation. Automated focus zooming in on her distant features. Magic was needed to counter magic.

She looked down at him. Her face was tense, with mouth drawn tight. The Grecian Witch did not come to his aid.

"Portate!" She roared. Circe imploded into a frothing black cloud and in the next instant she disappeared from the chamber.

Up until now Luthor had concentrated on the battle at hand; this chamber, but now as he slid back onto his mechanical feet. Lex considered the larger picture, thinking, where were Dubois and Hastor? Had Vandal Savage had called Circe away - could it be that this Manhunter's Command Ship was in danger of falling? Luther was all too aware of the limited numbers his Android allies possessed.

The Hawks too – without explanation, broke off their attack, and soared upwards and away. Hovering and waiting.

Then from out of the mist appeared the Emerald Archer. He stood his bow drawn. An advanced electro magnetic pulse arrow against the taut string, aimed at Lex's signature green and purple Battle Suit. Yet the verdant vigilante did not release. As the white-out cleared Lex saw that Deathstroke and his Lois Lane – rather _their_ Gazetteer, had the Cheetah pinned to the shell floor. The assassin and the reporter had disabled Minerva's Team Luthor Battle Suit.

It was a bitter pill for Lex to swallow. The humiliation from his teams collective failure twisted like a knife in his guts.

He watched as the the magician advanced toward him, her hips swaying casually as if strutting her way across a Vegas stage, with all the confidence of the victorious.

Have I been sold out? Lex wondered.

Savage certainly had form in that regard.

All this gave Luthor reason to pause, even as pointed cannon left and right he began to calculate the odds of a successful escape.

Lex dialled through the power suits interactive menus, and studied the results. Icons indicated the health, status, and whereabouts of his co-conspirators in Terra-First. Savage and Circe were on the great Space Ships bridge. Their status was green, indicating all was well. Some good news Lex thought.

The vampire Dubois had gone dark. His whereabouts unknown. Hastor's icon indicated that he was dead. "Ship confirm condition of Anton Hastor?"Luther asked.

"Hastor is deceased. Repair units have retrieved the body and are en route to sickbay."

"And Dubois?" Lex asked.

"No data."

"His last known position relative to Hastor?"

"Conduit Alpha Gamma 13. Two metres distant."

Entry/Exit point to this chamber as used by Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Lex noted. He frowned the Justice League avoided lethal force at all cost. It seemed to him unlikely that that they would ally themselves with Metahumans who would, but not impossible. Occam's Razor suggested a simpler explanation, one that involved a centuries old serial killer, that is a vampire, and deceit, and betrayal.

"Lex." Savage began, his voice coming over the Battle Suit's comms. "I need you and whatever is left of your team to stand down. Our situation has changed."

"I see." Luthor observed. Thinking that much is clear. "Am I to assume that we have reached an accommodation with the Justice League?"

"Yes." Savage replied. It was an opaque response that angered Luthor further.

"Hastor is dead. Dubois has vanished." Lex stated.

"That is interesting." Replied Savage. Opaque once again.

"Am I to conclude that we have suffered a reversal of fortune?" Luthor asked keeping his voice measured, but he felt nothing but rage and hatred.

"Nothing unexpected." Savage stated. "And not a defeat, not the same way as you and your team."

It was a cutting put down.

"I don't like where this is going." Lex said. Bitterness crept into his voice, and he knew it.

"You must have considered the possibility that the Manhunter Collective intended to betray us?"

Savage asked. It was also an explanation. The Illuminate had responded in kind.

"Of course." Lex snapped. He hadn't built his business empire by accepting every deal, every dealer, at face value. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it." He looked at the people he still regarded as the enemy within, either inhuman all traitors to humanity.

"I never asked you to like it." Savage laughed. "For what it's worth our personal deal still stands. Like I said to uncle Joe – and I said; comrade Stalin, Hitler may be a socialist, but he is no friend of yours. Better the capitalist devil you know, it's time to switch sides."

"Dammit Savage." Luthor cursed again.

Vandal laughed. "Sometimes in the race of life your horse stumbles under you, that is chance and happenstance. We must deal with it, sometimes you fall, sometimes you fail. What matters is that you get to fight another day. Even if that means switching horses mid-race."

-8-

The Martian Manhunter Jo J'Onzz soared rising and falling, looping and spinning threading herself between tangible verdant constructs of the Green Lantern Corps and the raging chemical fire from the living space ships. These ancient space going animals fighting a civil war. A Martian missile, the sole survivor of a long dead world passed into and through the shell one enemy living spacecraft. Insubstantial as a ghost Jo sped to the centre of Leviathan. There she interfaced directly with the intelligent living ship. Repeating a process she had already undertaken many times. Some attempts were successful, other times the Martian Manhunter was rebuffed, forced to move quickly, always because a resident Android crew was present. Yet each small victory added another soldier to the battle on justices side. Every time Joe joined the living ships hive mind she chipped away at the Manhunters Collectives authority, and with each and every convert Jo subtly changed the balance. Depreciating the Android Manhunters influence while asserting her own. Each success made it more likely that the next ship would defect. Even rebelling against direct Android Command. All the while the orphan polymorph drew on her formative experience as an adopted daughter of Themyscira, impressing upon the living ships still evolving independent consciousness Amazonian principles sisterhood, fraternity, liberty, justice and peace; the matriarchal monarchy that was the paradise islands of the Amazons.

Whilst connected to the Leviathans hive mind Jo received two signals in close succession over the Justice League Communication Channel. First from Washington DC, the second from New York. The Amazons led by Queen Hippolyta and the Atlanteans led by Aquaman and Meera, aided by the Flash, had successfully completed their respective objectives; spacecraft targeted because of their age and size – and consequent high rank and influence inside the Living Leviathan's Hive mind.

Jo extended her telepathic link connecting through the Justice League's modified transmitters addressing the respective leviathan vessels central neural net.

Simultaneously freeing these vessels from the remote Manhunter Collective's oppressive command and control system.

Now Jo J'Onzz thoughts were combined into those of the linked minds of these living spacecraft. Their shared thoughts included the data from other ships' internal senses.

Jo sought out the third Justice League team.

The Martian interfaced with the Cairo Vessel hovering over the ancient Giza plain hoping for the best, and she was rewarded. A volte-face was taking place. The remaining members of Terra -First and Team Luthor had changed sides. Bruce had been right. Faced with the uncomfortable truth about the Manhunter's real agenda the Illuminate had no other choice.

Jo watched through the Cairo ships internal eyes, as Circe and Vandal Savage attacked their former allies. Caught by surprise these Androids were made inoperative.

The Martian extended her mind and touched the Cairo Vessel's intelligence sharing the truth.

So a third Queen Leviathan joined the rebellion, persuaded by Jo's siren telepathic call, and the brutal reality that was the Androids Protocol 666.

Jo from orbit watched as these four vast spacecraft rocket space-ward converging as they crested the atmosphere, before diving through the air once more. Their destination Themyscira and the Portal. Then from Paradise they would crossover to Olympus, to face the Machine-god Cronus.

-8-

Silas Stone came too behind the consul. The computer monitor was shattered, and sparks erupted around about him like fireworks. He ran his fingers through his dark black tight curls. The air was filled with acrid smoke and he awoke both dizzy and confused. His last memory was of his daughter, the single minded Victoria. Desperate Silas staggered to his feet and looked for her. He remembered she had saved him. Stone hadn't to look far. His daughter lay sprawled across plasticised floor. Vic was drenched in bizarre volatile energy, light that poured from the broken containment chamber. A force with a life of its own, moving as if alive. The bright light leapt backwards and forwards between the broken chamber and across the gravely injured Victoria Stone.

The explosion which is seen the steel vault breached had engulfed Vic in energies that neither Silas nor his associate John Henry Irons had even begun to understand. This same energy has consumed steel like fire would paper. Even at the periphery Victoria's chocolate skin had been stripped from her limbs. The muscle from the bone. The left side of the face was destroyed and the right barely recognisable. Worse still volatile energy continued to consume her ravaged torso.

He stood transfixed. He didn't notice the other man until John spoke.

"She's gone." Irons told him. "One of us must stay to contain the Cube." The big man reached out to Silas. "You have a wife, a family. It has to be me."

"I can't." Silas muttered. "I can't leave her. Oh Victoria..."

Irons continued his voice firm. "Silas. Listen. We don't know what the artefact will do." John Henry pointed to where the presumed alien box was spinning in the air. De-constructing and reconstructing itself from complex combinations of three-dimensional shapes sliding in and out like an automated jigsaw puzzle. It hovered at the heart of a pulsating sphere of light from which arcs of arcs of energy snapped outwards into and around the prostate young woman.

"It must have reacted to the spacecraft's attack on this installation." Irons' face expressed surprise and realisation. "Oh my God! That has the to be it. The artefact must be the target – this is what the aliens want."

Stone didn't hear or didn't want to. Grief threatened to overwhelm him. It didn't matter to Silas that their precious artefact had never reacted in this manner in any shape way or form before today. Once an event of this magnitude would have been all that he could think about. But no longer. The reality of the choices he had made were thrust brutally to the forefront of his mind.

Silas' eyes informed him of the impossible. He saw that his daughters chest heaved.

Awestruck he knelt down moving closer until he could hear the rasp of her breathing as she fought to live.

He chose to fight too. In that moment Stone became detached from the sheer horror of Vic's condition, instead he fixated on a single objective.

"Silas please don't touch her, you'll risk being contaminated." Irons was shouting at him, but he barely heard the man.

"Let me get a containment suit at least." John said. "That way you can carry her out of here." John Henry's large hand grabbed hold of Stone's shoulder, pulling away from the pulsing volatile alien energy, that washed over and around Victoria Stone.

"Sarah will never let her body leave S.T.A.R Labs." Stone pulled himself free of Irons grasp. "I wouldn't if I was sitting in the Director's chair." He wondered where Sarah Charles was, it wasn't like her not to be in the thick of a crisis. "She should be here, she should see what her meddling has done." He mumbled as he walked away.

John Henry followed. "Silas, what are you going to do?" He demanded stepping into the smaller man's path.

Silas pointed at the secure storage locker. "We have the technology. John we can do this. We can save her."

Irons was dumbstruck. At once he grasped his fellow Scientist's intention.

"No Silas, we can't – we have no idea what will happen. Animal testing has barely begun. We never exposed any of our subjects to anything like this much volatile energy."

"Irons, this is _my_ project." Silas shouted. "_This is my daughter_." Stone ran ungainly across the rubble strewn floor to the other side of the laboratory. Leaving his partner behind.

-8-

"Chief – are you sure you know where you're going?"Jimmy asked.

"Great Caesar's ghost" Perry exclaimed, "Are you trying to get my goat?" White sighed. "Shine that pen light over here for goodness sake."

Jimmy complied, the LED torch fixed to his keyring was now the best light they had. Travelling from the underground car park into the latter-day catacombs beneath S.T.A.R Labs, concrete tunnels acting as conduits for the cables and pipework. Under normal circumstances these tunnels would be lit. However, the assault on the laboratory complex by other spacecraft above Metropolis had interrupted the power to the entire block.

A distant announcement echoed from above. The voice sounded like a recording. "Warning Secondary Containment Lock Down protocol has been initiated all non-essential personal must vacate Alpha Lab immediately and assemble in predesignated safe area."

"Doesn't sound too good." Jimmy noted.

Then their journey was interrupted by a live cry of alarm, close by from the shadows ahead of them.

White and Olsen ran as best they could in the dark.

"Don't point that into her eyes." Perry growled. He grabbed Jimmy's arm. They'd found the screamer and it was non other than Sarah Charles

"Sarah whatever you doing here?" White asked. "What's the problem."

"As director of his institute," Sarah began, making no attempt to hide her anger at their being here she said. "I really I should be asking you, Mr Planet Chief, what you and your sidekick are doing underneath my high security facility?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Perry huffed. "We're staging a rescue, like the Justice League."

Charles sighed. "Whatever Perry. You heard the alarm, we can't stay here." Sarah broke into a run. She had a better torch.

Both men followed. Tens of metres later she stopped, investigating her surroundings, before moving on again. Perry watched her shine the torch backwards and forwards looking for something.

"Come on Sarah. How come you're down here?"

"The access to the Central Building was blocked by the Alien." Sarah explained. "And I was out of my office, and locked out." She paused. "I need to make sure the Institute is secure – it's my job." "Sarah what do you have here that's so important that you're trying to get back in instead of getting away." Perry asked.

"Our work is important." Sarah replied. "You of all people know that."

"Yes - exactly." Perry pressed. "What could a bunch of hairless apes have that would interest a society, a civilisation, advanced enough to cross the vast distances of outer space?"

"Really Perry?" Sarah snapped. "You're trying to interview me here?"

"Actually I thought the reason we were here was to make sure Ms Charles was okay." Jimmy said.

Sarah Charles laughed, saying. "Ah there you are." She reached up and grabbed a rung on a rusting ladder, and stepped up. "Okay Perry perhaps the rise of the modern hero _has_ rubbed off on you."

"Sarah I know you're holding out on me."

"I am. All your questions will begat even more questions, if you just follow me." Sarah said as she climbed. "Assuming you want to get out of here alive that is."

-8-

"Okay." John Henry sighed. "Here goes nothing." He said to himself, thinking you didn't expect to get out of here alive anyway. Looking over at Silas on the other side of the Laboratory, he wished Stone had left, but looking at poor Vic struggling for her life, he appreciated why her father had chosen not leave.

A second loud warning played. Then a pre-recorded voice saying. "Laboratory lock-down will commence in thirty seconds after this message ends. There will be no further warnings given."

Irons entered the final numeric key, and the red digital counter timed the seconds down.

John watched Silas. He was busy opening the secure storage locker across on the other wall. Going through the motions required by the biometric lock.

Between them in the centre the room beside the containment structure was a sunken pit surrounded by a guard rail. Some years past it housed an earlier experiment. Currently this void was redundant, and served as occasional storage. So it came as a shock to John when at that moment there was an unexpected sound – a metallic clang from the shadows of this recess. His surprise was all the greater when he saw the head of .R Labs Metropolis Director Sarah Charles appear. His boss climbed out of the sunken recess between him and Silas.

"Sarah, God help us." John Henry exclaimed. Leaping forward. "You shouldn't have come." Irons remembered the maze of maintenance tunnels beneath them, concluding they must be linked to the void. That Sarah had used them to go under the Alien barrier around the Main Laboratory Complex.

The half minute was up. Around about them there was sound of steel shutters falling into place. For a moment the Laboratory echoed like a bell. As it did so the Director of S.T.A.R Labs clambered out of the hole.

In the silence that followed Sarah Charles started to answer his earlier question. "John I'm responsible for you and.." She stopped talking and Irons understood why.

Charles was staring at Victoria Stone. The young woman lay on the floor, barely alive, limbs reduced to little more than bones. Vic was bathed in waves of strange light from the shifting changing cube.

All the colour had drained from the face of S.T.A.R. Lab's Director of Operations.

Irons reached out and pulled Sarah in a friendly hug. The smaller woman collapsed into his grasp.

After a long moment Irons said. "Silas wants to use the Tunguska Nannites on Victoria." He told her.

"She's still alive?" Sarah asked pulling away, and regaining her business like discipline.

Irons admired her steel.

"Hell. We haven't determined whether these nannites are even of terrestrial in origin, or whether there is any long term compatibility with human biology." Sarah exclaimed.

John Henry nodded. It had been over a century since the event the remote Siberian location, but only now was human technology able to identify these tiny micro machines. Discovered in samples collected at ground zero of an explosion that had been around a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb.

Irons pointed to where Victoria's Father was working. "Perhaps you can persuade Silas this is crazy, I love Vic, I do, I hate this has happened, but how can what he's proposing to do be the right thing? He asked, then sighing. "But I couldn't talk him out of the idea – maybe Sarah you can."

Director Charles said nothing for a moment. Staring at the broken chamber and the Stone girl. "My God. What have I done." She whispered, before looking up at Irons, straight in the eye. "John in theory Silas is correct." Sarah stated, holding her hand up to him before he could speak. "The problem being the unpredictability of final outcome, but what is absolutely certain without the Tunguska nannites the Artefact won't stop converting Victoria into Volatile Energy." She paused and said. "Hell John I've never seen the cube output this much energy – how do we know it will stop with Victoria – how can we know it'll stop at all ever?"

Irons looked at the broken steel chamber. He hadn't paid the metal much attention, not with Victoria's condition, Silas's grief, and the need to contain the situation, but Sarah was onto something. "The fabric of Chamber is being converted too." He pointed to where Volatile Energy from the Cube was dancing across the broken containment structure. The inner workings were exposed. What had been some of the most advanced data collection equipment known to man.

Could Sarah be right – could this tiny cube house incredible destructive power?

Then it got worse. John Henry finally noticed that two civilians had followed Director Charles from the hatch into the sealed Laboratory. An older man and a redhead with the camera. He'd been too wrapped up in the moment to notice.

"Damn." The younger said. "Perry that hatch almost shut on my foot – what was that explosive closing action or what?" Then he saw Victoria's body.

Irons thought he was going retch.

Perry asked. "What happened here? My God that girl is still breathing – Why aren't you helping her? Sarah?"

Irons had to stop him. "We are." He said. It's like this, we can't touch her or move her yet. The energy in around her is too volatile."

"Radiation?" The younger man asked.

"Something like that." Irons responded.

Sarah turned to the two mean and said. "I'm sorry Perry, Jimmy."

"What's the matter – what ever do you mean?" Perry asked.

"I'm sorry because we're trapped. I didn't expect... This." She shook her head. "The Lab has been sealed." Sarah told them.

"And that's bad... because?" Jimmy asked.

Irons frowned. "Honestly guys, we're trapped with a volatile unquestionably alien energy source, an energy that might just convert the Metropolis, hell the Earth into more of itself." He gestured to the broke containment chamber, and Victoria. "While another alien unknown, that is the vessel above Metropolis is attacking us." John Henry then folded his broad muscular arms across his equally broad chest. Irons needed to impress on these people the gravity of the situation.

From the shock on their faces John decided he had done that.

"Oh crap." Jimmy said.

"The Manhunters probably want that Viral Energy." Perry said.

Irons didn't correct his mistake. Hell, right now it was a more accurate description of what the Artefact did.

Across the room Silas Stone had accessed a secure storage locker. It's vault mechanism governed by biometric retinal and fingerprint recognition.

Once inside he grabbed from the shelves as a single vial containing a pinkish liquid. He then ran over to where Victoria lay, her laboured breathing becoming shallower with each moment.

"Director Charles." He said. His voice cold. His cheeks tear stained. "How unexpected." Silas expertly loaded a metal syringe with the vial, which snapped into place.

He appeared very calm.

Sarah said to Stone. "Silas."

"I'm not asking your permission Sarah. You can sack me later." Stone growled.

Charles shook her head. "I'm not going to. This maybe be necessary, not just for Victoria, but for all of us."

"Your damn right." Silas snapped. "I'm saving Victoria. Who wouldn't even be here if _you_ hadn't let her in."

Irons saw Director Charles wince. Sarah said to Stone "But Silas once you introduce the nannites, there's no way of controlling how they'll interact with the volatile energies in Victoria's system, and the wider environment, the results could be..."

"I know what might happen. I ran the earlier experiments." Stone interrupted.

John Henry reached out and grabbed his friends arm. "There maybe another way, if we just think about this."

Silas looked at Irons. "John, I know you can stop me, physically you can hold me back. Pin me down, knock me out, but John I'm asking you to let me do this. Let me try. I know they'll keep her alive, and that's all that matters. Dammit, John, your right in this much - we can work something out later. Don't you always say where there is life there is hope? If Vic dies, where's the hope?"

Irons let Silas's arm go free, and with that Stone injected Victoria with the mysterious microscopic machines.

-8-

Across the face of world leviathan spacecraft were leaving there appointed positions above Metropolitan areas, some heeded the Martian Manhunter's call to rebel, others remaining loyal – leashed to the Machines they contained, but all were travelling space-ward.

With the balance of the battle outside of Earth's atmosphere shifting in favour of the living something else changed.

The portal over the hidden realm of Themyscira had remained stable, fixed over the Amazon's homelands, until now. The swirling confluence of energies lengthened. Growing exponentially, becoming like a bolt of upward lightning that thrust the gaping maw at the heart of the vortex out of the stratosphere, and into the midst of the fight.

The whirlpool of turbulent energy beckoning to the rump of the Manhunter's armada. The response was immediate. Manhunter vessels disengaged from combat with the rebels and the Lantern Corps, snapping away at great speed falling into the open gate way between worlds.

Jo J'Onzz determined that Cronus the undead Machine-god was calling them to him. She knew the battle for the Earth would be won or lost in the heavenly dimension of Olympus. This fight had been but a distraction.

Now it was all or nothing. Jo raced after the retreating enemy entering one of the fleeing vessels, she melded with the Ships Nueral Ner. Her suspicions were confirmed. From deep within the living vessel she called out to Earth's Green Lantern.

"Hal, quick to me – we must enter the portal before Cronus collapses the gate behind his ships."

Jordan reacted creating a vast hand that grasped a retreating Spacecraft by the tail, binding himself to the Leviathan. The Earth's Green Lantern followed the Martian Manhunter through the swirling whirlpool of energy. As he did so Jordan broadcast the mission to his fellow corps-men. Those closest to the vortex did their best to follow. While some Manhunter vessels remained behind to fight a desperate rearguard action to stop them even as the Gateway snapped shut. Only Hal and a handful of Lanterns made it through.

The last transmission Jo received before the Gate closed was the voice of the Green Lantern Salaak. Even as the mouth of the vortex between dimensions closed, the Lanterns words slipped through. Distinguished by his six limbs, and a red chitinous exoskeleton, Salaak was an efficient commander. His order to the many Lanterns left Earth-side was standard corps practice. "To the Planet below." He instructed. "Expedite rescue. Contain and repair collateral damage. re-establish power and services; maintain order."

-8-

On the other side of the Gateway in Olympus the battle raged. Wonder Woman watched the blue speck that was Ancient Guardian of the Universe – Ganthlet. The Oan drifted in the eye of green fiery tornado across the verdant sea of the grassy Elysian Fields.

Wonder Woman looked for the human scale Superman and his dog. He was tiny relative to the gods, giants and monsters that fought together on the Elysian Fields.

They had appeared for a brief moment and then disappeared amidst the chaos of this magical battle.

The vast living spacecraft that had brought them here, had on exposure to the magic of this heavenly dimension, reformed into armoured giant, much like it's kin, but larger still, and this giant fought on the side of the Olympians.

Surely she thought by Artemis' the goddess of the hunt's gift, I should see Kal?

Ganthlet was smaller still, but so very visible at the centre of his fiery green star. This construct of Green Lanterns Light was unlike any Diana had seen before. Like an open flame, this energy given form, had the appearance of life. Vital and angry the pillar of fire tore across the grasslands toward the fray, toward the undead Machine-god's avatar. Taking the form of many pointed star. Sending fiery fingers stabbing outwards, pointing in every direction of the compass. Forward spiralling at the heart of the undead Machine-god's torso. Drilling through shell and metal. Black necrotic tissue burst from the wounds as fire formed green metal.

Zeus, Hades and Posideon did not hesitate to take advantage of this attack by Ganthlet. They pressed forward each with his weapon, but even gravely wounded the undead Machine-god was viscous in his defence.

Wonder Woman understood the nature of battles fought in the godly realms, because of magic, because death was never an end in these realms, war could be ceaseless. Violence and pain without end. Victory – peace, could only come when that balance of power was changed. Once upon a time the flint sickle that Cronus had used to butcher Uranus, and Zeus in turn used on Cronus, had been enough to tip that balance. Sons deposing their fathers. The day of that weapons omnipotence had past. The Manhunter Androids had tipped the balance back in the favour of the Undead Giant, but not enough, when together with the Justice League, Wonder Woman had altered the equation. Now it was a brutal stalemate that threatened to persist forever, endless battle, unceasing war.

Athena at Diana's side spoke to Wonder Woman. Her voice clear and calm. Only a goddess could converse like this in the heat of such a battle.

"See little sister how this Guardian has taken different road to his brethren." Athena's sword struck at the red beast, once leashed to the Undead Giant. Like the Minotaur of old slain by the ill-fated Theseus, this horned bullheaded monster raged with talons and teeth dripping blood scratching at Athena's armour. Her blade shattered the right horn like glass, countless broken pieces falling like rain.

"Little Sister this Oan has forsaken his brethren by embracing other emotions. This is why Ganthlet is able to wield such a ring."

The bullheaded monster snorted roaring its displeasure, blood dripped from its wounds, which like fire burned bright. Diana struck out with her foot. "How is it possible?" Wonder Woman propelled the beast backwards into the armoured Leviathan Knights which pressed excited at his rear. Diana sent them sprawling like bowling pins. "From where can such an object of power come – the ancients say that all the raw magic the Guardians collected, they secured in the belly of chosen stars?"

The Goddess of Wisdom Athena continued saying. "The Ring he wields comes from another universe."

"An alternative reality?" Diana concluded. Thinking where a Green Lantern wielded a magic ring.

"Of which there are many." The goddess Hestia announced her visage one of pure flame emerging from within Orange serpent, it's horned head exploding like a stone from the heart the fire. Twitching and writhing eel like tale flip-flopped across the sea of green. "Greed is a hunger like no other, that monster will be back as sure as the flames in the fire pit need feeding."

"Aye, one thing is sure, there is not one of us here, in this dysfunctional family of ours who is short on emotion." Athena agreed. "I fear this battle will not end. Our own passions will make it so."

Diana watched as the Machine-god writhed. Fighting Zeus, Hades and Posideon. The Undead Giant was still impaled upon the magical energy from Ganthlet's magical ring. Fingers of green fire stretched out reaching beyond the one who had called himself Cronus, and out over the battlefield. Starry digits grasping at the tail of his green salt water beast. The great toothed whale thing snapped its jaws trying to bite Poseidon's hands, while it tried to thrust its solitary horn into the face of the sea god. Now the magical energies sent forth by Ganthlet harpooned great green whale filling the apparition with fire and light. Transforming the feral beast snatching back control of this embodiment of will through Ganthlet's determination amplified and strengthened by the magical realm of Olympus. The great green whale now attacked the Undead Giant's army. It followed Ganthlet's Star, and obeyed his will.

Poseidon laughed. "See brothers! The great beast of Determination has been subjugated by one more powerful."

"But yet six Beasts of Raw Emotion remain." Hades said.

"Hold fast brother," Hera called out, "see for yourself - yonder arrives new allies to our cause."

Diana's Hunter's eye followed the pointing finger of her god-mother Artemis deep into the distant green where the grasslands parted spraying black dirt high into the air. Emerging from the real world came more living leviathans.

The ships rose out of the grasslands. Diana recognised the vessels as vast even amongst their kind. Queen ships, and by their markings, these were from New York, Cairo, and from Washington.

"Mother." Wonder Woman laughed. "Sisters! You have come to join the fight!"

Invisible Air Ships on countless wings, poured forth from the Washington Spacecraft. Even as it transformed into an armoured giant. The same process was repeated with the other Queens. Like the ship from Kansas, they towered head and shoulders above the enemy. They pressed from the rear, dividing the Undead Giant's forces.

The balance shifted ever so slightly in their favour.

All the while the Great Olympians battled on. Zeus and his elder brothers Hades and Posideon fought on against That which had claimed to be Cronus.

As Diana stood with the Kings family they were attacked by the remaining five beasts. The Raging Bull had been fought to the ground by Athena, even now clawed it's way back toward them.

The five were held and lead by the hideous hydra like yellow beast. Its many heads snapped at Diana, seeking out Hera, and Aphrodite. Fearful tendrils extended into the other four monsters, the indigo cephalopod, the great blue bird, and the violet dragon, binding them to it, creating a chimera that leapt at the goddesses with so many more teeth and claws.

Hermes came to their aide, his signature staff, aflame, a fire that drove the yellow thing back like light might shadow, or truth ignorance.

In that moment Diana felt fear, the certain hope of death, she remembered the suffocating kindness of her mother that had sought to stop her leaving Themyscira that first time. She remembered the obsessive compulsive adoration of mortal men, and their desire for her.

Dark emotions assailed Wonder Woman. The grasslands of the Elysian Fields darkened as these fearsome energy beasts attacked, as magic begat magic.

Her lariat burned in her hands. Something was wrong, and she knew it; these beasts were raw power without direction, and in the sway of the Undead Giant, certain truth was being subverted.

As frightful as these Beasts of Raw Emotion were, they were not in and of themselves evil, rather it was the Undead Giant's desires that made these Great Beasts rabid.

Diana felt caught up in the moment, holding entrapped the Violet Dragon in her lasso's limitless coils. She wrestled the beasts jaws away from the Queen of the gods. In turn Hera, Zeus' consort thrust her lance into the breast of Violet Beast. Together the Queen of Olympus and the Princess of Themyscira wrestled with the bright Dragon.

Diana found her heart pounding. She remembered her friend. In the moment she could think of nothing, of no one else. Where was he? Diana thought, whatever had happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Where was Kal - where was Superman - where was that one man and his dog, specks among the giants, gods, and energy beasts, in this magical world of yesterday?

Diana determined to find out.


	34. Chapter 34

Victoria Stone came online. Her consciousness hovered, confused by the wealth of information. In a dream she was in a boat being rocked by a choppy sea, while above her the hot sun beat down, she was not alone. Chatter from a myriad of arguing voices threatened to overwhelm her.

The last thing she remembered was the light, the white hot brilliance that had engulfed her, then her mother's voice shouting. "_Unintended consequence of Self De__struct sequence. – Warning Prime Law violation. Suspending Secondary Directive. Preserve life._

It made no sense. Her mother's voice sang out. "_Biological_ _Repair process collapsing. Volatile Metagene. Non conformance!"_

Vic realised the voice only sounded like her mother, it made sense, of course this was all a dream, and knowing this was a dream she understood her mind was using the familiar to interpret the unintelligible. Why she wondered, if I know that I am dreaming, why is it - she thought, that don't I wake up?

"_Matter conversion incomplete_. _Unprecedented_ _Biological feedback_." The voice stated.

"_Resist._

_Enforce Secondary Directive_.

"_Negative_ _New Genesis __non-proliferation__ protocol_ _compromised."_

Her world became only bright white noise. Deafening, and in her desperation to rise above the noise, she perceived something less familiar. A welcome stranger; the sound of her father's voice

"... Where there is life there is hope? If Vic dies, where's the hope?"

Her mother but not her mother, the voice from her dream returned.

"_Prime Law override commencing. Preserve life. Nanites identified. Nanites co-opted. Seeking compromise. Unprecedented Event Warning! Checking... Please wait..."_

Then there was an ensemble of voices, harmonious as any Gospel Choir."_Symbiosis__ achieved. System rebooting._"

Awake Vic Stone saw more white bright walls towering high above, reflective like fine mother of pearl fluted ridges like sculptured roots rising into trunks copied from some South American forest. Yet there were more familiar things in her immediate surroundings. The fractured remains of her father's workplace, and within this broken Laboratory, was Silas Stone and the troublesome John Henry Irons. The sympathetic Sarah Charles, and a youth with vivid auburn hair, a face she didn't recognise.

Who is that? She wondered.

Then the images raced through her mind. Like a shoal of silvery fish dashing beneath her boat.

"_Identify... James Olsen Photographic Journalist_."

Beside him was an older barrel chested man.

"_Identify... Perry Whi__te, Editor in Chief, Daily Planet Newspaper_."

Why,... Where am I? She thought confused. How is it we're gathered together in the broken remains of my dad's S.T.A.R. Labs laboratory?

The others told her what this vast white chamber was.

"_Interior of Man Hunter Collective Living Vessel...Please wait_

"_Clandestine Intersect Established._

"_Vessel Mission designation Metropolis has recovered all non-terran technology and associated research structure – designation Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories Metropolis; along with this unit other biological life forms were extracted due to proximity._

"_Orders revoked. Vessel summoned to rendezvous at inter-dimensional portal"_

These words made no sense at all.

The-others were waves lapping around her boat. Voices without definitive shape or form, like the choppy sea, fluid.

"Where am I" She gasped. Finding her voice, her throat felt very dry.

"Vic?" Her father said, intense, he bent over her, his face so tortured.

"_Currently in transit between rela__tive dimensions to sub reality designation Olympus_." The-others told her.

"Victoria, I'm sorry." Silas said, tears dropped from his eyes. They fell onto her face, but not on her skin.

"_Water, mucin, lipids, lysozyme, lactoferrin, lipocalin, lacritin, __immunoglobulins, glucose, urea, sodium, and potassium_." The-others chattered. "_Hormonal Protien levels heightened; prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin detected_."

"What?" Vic gasped.

The-others answered. "_Discharge of stress-relat__ed Proteins necessary for human function. Designation – Tears. Person designate Silas Stone, unit designation; Father. Distress levels high._" More chattering. "_Unit is responding to emotional distress in kind. Scrubbing biological system in progress._"

Victoria Stone rose to her feet. Her body moved with more grace than her clouded mind thought it would. As she looked around her, the world she saw was not the perspective Victoria Stone had grown up with. Rather it was most like a series of overlapping windows, which moved and shifted in response to her thoughts. Each vista was a different perspective on the vast pearl coloured chamber. Together they represented a 360 degree image. One view grew to take centre place in her mind's eye was her father standing beside... something, something not quite human. Just as she might have done before a mirror Vic raised her right hand. She saw how her skin was intersected by wires, circuits laying just beneath the surface, some glowing, others pulsing. The something next to her father did likewise, mirrored her movement. The something not quite human was her.

Her left hand was like mercury, never quite still, but unquestionable was its metallic state. The mechanical theme continued throughout her left arm, side and lower body. The right was at first glance less affected, less mechanical. She looked deeper, and Vic could. She knew that her body's largest organ covered a multitude of bio-mechanical parts. Skin hiding the machines within. She knew this to be true. The-others told her so.

So they sang a chorus of sentient machines. Each stood ready awaiting orders. Each a building block in the larger collective. They had borrowed and stolen material from the containment chamber. They had taken the most advanced human technologies and fused them with an alien power source, and the meat and bone of Vic Stone. The-others were sentient Nanites. Bringing all this together, binding the technology to her cells. She was a Cyborg.

Victoria was thrust back into her memories, for a moment immersed. As real as the many images that were suspended at the edges of her periphery vision. She was a little girl at Church, dressed in her Sunday best, her Baptist mother singing and dancing to the Gospel Chorus. The Pastor saying "As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head, say to the feet, "I don't need you!""

"_Symbiosis_." The-others said.

Her face was like a mirror, a red light glowed from the left eye and her natural pupil from the right.

Her fleshy mouth gaped in shock. Her body reacted snapping and clicking encasing her exposed flesh in metal armour, her left hand formed into a gun like barrel, which glowed red inside like a furnace.

"_Flushing excess adrenaline. Increasing dopamine le__vels_." The-others told her.

Victoria felt the terror, fear and anger washed away, in its place her mind logical, sought to exert control over her new Cybernetic Systems. As she did so the armour retracted back and in on itself, her skin reappeared, and on her left side the metal shimmered, like individual scales on a fish, or pixels on a screen they flipped and shifted becoming rich golden brown that was her natural colour. She stood in her athletics costume. The last thing she had been wearing, but not the tracksuit she had pulled on over it. Vic realised she hadn't been thinking about the latter. Waves of realisation washed over her, as chattering from her many parts. Looking at her hands they both appeared human, natural, but she knew the skin on the left was artificial, perfect, but not her own. The-others told her that had been lost, consumed by Volatile Energy.

Victoria Stone turned to her father. "Daddy what have you done to me?"

Then something inside of her went "Ping."

* * *

Krypto sniffed the air. His ears pricked, body tense and eyes searching.

"What is it boy?" Superman asked Krypto in flight. The dog growled. The Man of Tomorrow followed the Hound of Kryptonopolis red eyed angry stare, out and into the vast figure of the Undead Machine-god.

Krypto had already demonstrated his dislike for the Androids. Manhunter technology was woven into the frame of this ever changing, and now growing, Zombie Cyborg.

Superman and Krypto had followed Ganthlet, flying like moths around the Guardians flickering Green Flame. Ganthlet had elected to be their vanguard; to burn bright, and to hit hard; to create the opportunity for Superman to strike at the heart of the matter.

That was their plan.

Superman saw Diana. The beautiful Princess of Themyscira, stood tall, in every way an equal with aeon old Olympians, and was fighting alongside them, strange beasts of light, each a colour of the spectrum.

He watched angrily as a Violet Dragon snapped at Wonder Woman's hair as she turned away its claws with her defensive blows.

Towering above her was the larger still Machine-god, a changing and growing monster that faced the three brothers, Zeus, Hades and Posideon.

Superman pressed closer.

Rising above the Olympians leapt the crowned Queen of the gods, Hera. She her spread her arms, lifting her armoured aegis cloak, made of sparkling metallic feathers that dazzled with vivid peacock colours, it spread wide as she turned like a dancer. Her cloak rising around her as wings, and then from the weave came a hail of rainbow quills, falling like arrows, striking at the enemy, piercing their armour, and drawing blood.

Flying between this terrible rain, insect like, using this attack as cover, Superman and Krypto followed the green fire of Ganthlet's unique Lantern Ring. Superman and Krypto spiralled towards the fractured plate armour of the Machine-god. Tongues of green fire licked around them both, linking them back to the wielder. Ganthlet's conscious interacted with Superman.

"This ring will be soon be exhausted." He explained. "The longer this battle persists the stronger the Machine-god becomes because he draws the fallen to him. This is how the stalemate with the Olympians will end; how the enemy means to tip the balance in his favour."

This much the Man of Tomorrow could see. Inexorable, the Undead Giant grew, by drawing to itself the reanimated dead. As Diana and the Olympians struck down Machine-god's soldiers they rose, coming together into unholy chimeras, stumbling across the bloodied grasslands, their hands and feet churning the green to black. These ungainly things fought to reach the Machine-god's carapace, where they were drawn into his gargantuan mill of meat and bone.

Like the mythical hydra, striking down the Machine-god's army had a counter intuitive effect. The fallen became part of his arsenal melding dead flesh and metal twisting into fresh mechanical limbs covered with armoured shell.

Only the verdant fire from the ring wielded by the Guardian had any lasting effect on the Self Styled Cronus. Ganthlet's flame burned on. The torso of the Machine-god was holed. The Guardian's Fire burned in these open wounds. The Lanterns led by Hal Jordan swarmed to Ganthlet adding their constructs to his attack, but these solid light forms proved incidental. Striking and destroying the Machine-god, as the Olympians did, only for Undead Giant to reconstruct itself, ever more dangerous than before. No longer clad in smooth pearlescent armour, the features of the Machine-god from head to feet were an increasing hideous sea of new limbs, horns, snapping heads a hideous confluence of metal and death.

A revolting answer to the Olympians and their allies.

Superman followed his friend's nose, guided by the dog's projected line of sight, a straight path taken by energy emitted by Krypto's eyes, visible to his highly evolved Kryptonian senses. Krypto was fixated upon a tiny element deep within the self-proclaimed Titan Chronus. A relative speck, buried deep within the interior of the Undead Giant. His focus like the laser sight pinpointing the target.

Everything in Krypto's demeanour told Superman that this splinter of glass was something special. This was the proof of Ganthlet's words. "...that magic has its place."

Even Superman thought, on Krypton. Even now within the monster ahead.

The Man of Steel fast followed Krypto, both so small against the broken carapace of the Machine-god, their speed and size rendering them near invisible. The turbulence and sonic whip crack of this flight lost amongst the thunder and lightning of magical battle, as Zeus, Posideon, and Hades led the Olympians, against the growing cancer of the Undead Giant; against the coloured energy beasts, and his army.

"It is now up to you Kryptonian to do your part. Claim your heritage from the Usurper!" Ganthlet told him, as Superman passed through the Guardians verdant fiery projections were beginning to wane. Ganthlet had burned bright and hard, and his power was almost exhausted.

Superman's face was grim with determination led by Krypto who had the scent of their prize as together they entered the metropolis of dead flesh and never alive metal, the mechanism that was the Machine-god.

* * *

Bruce stood on the bridge of the Cairo Leviathan. He was, just as he had calculated, the linchpin in an unholy alliance between the self-styled leaders of Terra First and the Justice League.

There was no getting away from it, as allies of necessity they were still divided. It was a vast space, this command room, and the two teams choose opposite sides of it.

Trust was not a word in Bruce's lexicon.

As they completed the phasing between worlds Bruce heard the voice of the Martian Manhunter. Jo was already on the Olympus side of the portal coordinating the allies through the Justice League's communication network.

"Your skill is needed." Jo told him. "Your mind is unique among the humans in our League."

The Dark Knight possessed an exceptional intelligence, in many ways the trauma of his early life defined him, made him first an orphan, then the man he became. Yet a more subtle handicap paradoxically empowered him. His mind sifted and sorted detail, as only an autistic scale savant could.

"How so?" He asked. Tapping is ear to indicate he was in communication.

Alerted by this the Green Arrow stared at him, Oliver's question implicit. "What?" He mouthed. "Are we through?"

Bruce nodded, as Jo explained Ganthlet's plan. "Bruce you are able to join the shared hive mind of these living vessels." J'Onzz told him. "They are unused to acting independently, but together we can act as bridge to coordinate our attack. The enemy has superior numbers, we need better tactics. Or they will prevail."

Bruce frowned. A Guardian of the Universe among their number, it didn't fit his expectations, and that was unsettling.

Jo included images in a graphical display mapping their assets relative to the Machine-gods forces. She also connected him to the Atlantean's and the Amazon's famed Mental Radio. Confirmation that the League and their allies had taken key command ships from Washington and New York, as well as this vessel from Cairo. Bruce noted there was also their first rebel ally, the spacecraft from Kansas.

In addition a number of rebelling ships had followed the Martian Manhunter through the portal from orbit.

Bruce tallied their numbers. Noting the listed causalities among the Amazon and the Atlantean Warriors, so far the league had been fortunate. Bruce did not count on luck.

He saw the Machine-god had a clear numerical advantage. His lips pursed.

They had been joined by Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and Terra First had lost Anton Hastor, dead, and Du'Bois missing. This irked the Batman greatly.

Jo was waiting on his answer.

"Affirmative" The Batman responded after a moment. "I can appreciate the tactical value."

"I will facilitate the connection." Jo answered. The Martian Manhunter then touched his consciousness via his League Communication device. As she did so she opened another portal to the wider living Vessel collective – the non-human allies of the League.

Even the wealth of knowledge he had assembled, could not adequately prepare the Batman for this revelation. Bruce joined the Hive mind piggy backing on the psychic bridge created by the Martian Manhunter. He was exposed to a wide array of sensory inputs, once invisible frequencies of sound and light were revealed to him. He saw the Elysian Fields through the senses of these incredible living spacecraft.

He grunted. "Is this what it was like become Kal - to have your eyes and ears opened... to all this...?" His gloved hand sought the support of nearby wall. His world had just become a whole lot bigger.

"Are you Okay?" Lois Lane asked him. With her was the Assassin Deathstroke. He kept his distance, but Bruce noted where his attention lay. A micro expression, hardly an action by the Terminator confirmed the Gotham Detective's suspicions. Bruce's sources suggested Deathstroke was a presumed dead Special Forces operative by the name of Slade Wilson, an old man by the standards of his profession, and once a close compatriot of General Lane, hence his connection to the General's daughter Lois. Yet this old man showed no sign of slowing down. Another Metahuman the Dark Knight concluded.

"I'm fine Miss Lane." The Batman replied. "The Martian Manhunter touched me telepathically; it was unsettling for a moment."

"Does that mean...?"

He interrupted. "Yes we're no longer in normal space, but in an inter-dimensional pocket universe. They call this place Olympus, the home of the gods."

Lane frowned. Batman noted her interest. She was a snoop, gone spook. Inquisitiveness was to be expected. Bruce began sifting through their various strategic options. He let go of the wall.

The Batman now knew what was coming.

"You should watch closely Miss Lane; the next few minutes are going to be exciting."

Lois frowned again, this time whilst looking at the vast view-screen organ, a huge window on the outside world. It revealed vast expanse of green.

"The Elysian Fields" The Batman explained "and a battlefield" he added.

Lane gasped. She was not alone. Each saw the gods and giants at war. Even Barbara Minerva, broke from her sulking to watch agog.

"And by the way welcome to the team." The Batman said.

The Martian Manhunter began another simultaneous conversation. This was relayed to the League, and its human allies of convenience, including the Metropolis TV anchor. "This is the Martian Manhunter speaking over the Justice League Network. Stand ready for orders."

"Damned if I will" Grumbled Savage.

Ras Al Ghul frowned, his daughter Talia remonstrated with the undying mercenary.

Bruce watched her thoughtfully.

"His power will not last long." The Witch Circe observed, pointing to the verdant fire coming from the Guardian.

"Long enough" Zatana Zatara replied.

"It's a times like these I wish the Green in Green Arrow was more than a socio-political statement."

"Like substance K?" Dinah asked.

"Okay Pretty Bird. Maybe not everything that glows green is great." Ollie conceded.

"You may get your wish my friend." Wayne told Queen.

J'Onzz had warned the Batman what was to come next, but it was not enough to be told, this was something that had to be seen to be believed.

Around about them the Cairo ship metamorphosed.

Bruce and the others were but observers. The magic played out before them on the view-screen organ that dominated one side of the control chamber. Their vessel showed them how the exterior form of each arriving spacecraft was changed morphing into the form of giant warriors.

On board this the Cairo vessel, in the command room where they stood, order was maintained. The artificial gravity that held them in place did not falter. Even when the Cairo spacecraft struggled upright, unsteady and uncertain for the first time, humanoid armoured and armed like a Knight of old.

It was both amazing and somewhat comical to watch the newly made Knights, the giant vessels remade, stumble forward, moving on limbs these living spacecraft had never before possessed.

"They are fast learners." Luthor observed. "Like foals or calves, unsteady after birth, but soon enough they find their feet." There was a hunger in his eyes of man who wanted to know how this was done. Yet at the same time the scientist was uneasy.

Bruce deduced the reason.

Circe did not share this scientific anxiety regarding the impossible nature of magic. "The soil of the Elysian Fields is not what it seems." She said with a smile that made her look hungry.

Even Vandal Savage was surprised. He laughed with joy of witnessing something new.

A chair rose from the floor of the Vessel. Bruce took his seat. In the background Wayne could hear Jo J'Onzz voice explaining what was to happen to the others.

The Batman first because of his capacity to aggregate data into systems and tactical strategies and then by the bridge created by the Martian Manhunter onward to each of them, if they were willing.

Batman felt his thoughts bind closer to this one vast living machine.

"Those that can do, those can't teach." Bruce said under his breath. "Now Cairo let's see how well you learn." The Batman brought his unique skills to the living vessel. His thoughts guiding the new life form. Then with ferocity born of vengeance, the Cairo Vessel charged.

Savage was the first to grasp what was to happen.

"The Batman has control of this Titan." He howled. "What about me?" The bearded man asked.

"Shut up and sit down." Batman growled. "All of you."

As the vast living machine crashed into its opposite number, Bruce used the other craft's momentum to throw the armoured warrior into the dirt.

Around about them they saw other vast ships were arriving after them coming from Earth to Olympus, bursting through the green grasslands these new Leviathans gave a sense of scale to the giants on the field. Among them were rebel ships. Most were loyal to the self-styled Cronus. Each began to change.

Bruce almost smiled as he dodged a blunt and ill-timed attack. Jo was right, as was Luthor, these newly metamorphosed warriors were uncomfortable in their skin – their pearlescent armour. Wayne for a brief moment was taken back into his memories, to a happier time. A small boy watching classic Japanese television shows. Actors would fight other actors in cumbersome rubber suits, against the background of a model city. Pretending to be giants, monsters, robots, and the like, fighting each other in clumsy abandon. So it was here.

The Dark Knight heard again the gunfire from Joe Chills '45 with perfect recall. His parent's murder, his loneliness gave him focus. Bruce understood the nature of this battle, and the role the League must play in tipping the balance back in the favour of the Olympians, and their Champion the Princess of Themyscira.

_"Are we all clear on what we must __do?__" The Batman asked his unnatural allies._

_"Crystal." Lex replied, as his battle suit clicked, whirred and locked around him, the bald scientist was the first to sit down on the chair created at his__ side by the Cairo Vessel._

One by one the others followed suit. They eased themselves into the seats that grew organically from the floor of the chamber. Bruce linked as he was to Jo J'Onzz and the living ships Hive mind, felt their fear, and in the case of Savage glee, as they joined the network.

Each human being would bring their unique skills to the battlefield through the network of the hive mind.

The Batman danced with another opponent. He taught the Rebel Collective with each thought and action he shared with Cairo. The Dark Knight imparted his experience at taking an opponent down without leaving them dead.

This was something the Martian Manhunter impressed on them all as she channelled the thoughts of the individual team members into a greater collective awareness. Killing their enemy only made the Machine-god stronger.

Bruce knew this would be a difficult lesson for likes of the Assassin Deathstroke and the immortal mercenary Vandal Savage, to hold back from the killer blow. Tactical oversight was his job, he had to ensure their collective worked as a coordinated whole, and that meant sticking to the plan.

Bruce wondered what the Guardian's hadn't told him.

The Batman was always suspicious.

One by one the humans and metahuman minds were linked to a newly metamorphosed rebel Warrior. Each brought their unique skills to the fight in special ways; such was the nature of this magic realm.

"_Once more unto the breach_, dear friends, _once more__" Laughed Savage as he watched his living vessel begin their fight__, c__r__ashing amour into armour._

The Magicians Circe and Zatanna, manifested their powers through their Avatars. In turn the Green Arrow's vessel produced a bow. Dinah's manifested her trademark Canary Cry. Two metamorphosed warriors grew wings, and took flight, as the Hawks minds took control. So it was each Avatar took on the characteristics of the individual whose thoughts directed the living learning machine into battle.

The Batman's thoughts were interrupted as Wonder Woman's spoken words came across their joined network. She asked. "Where is Kal?"

Bruce searched the Hive consciousness. "Superman left the Kansas Leviathan alongside Ganthlet." He replied. "The Guardians green fire made Ganthlet easy to follow, but a man and a dog, in the vastness of the Elysian Fields are another matter." He added. "I'll keep looking."

* * *

The armed giants who had answered the Martian Manhunter's call charged into the enemy. Jo was removed from the field, her mind and thoughts completely involved in the process of coordinating this telepathic network. Her isolation was frustrating.

Jo dared to hope the Justice League had tipped the balance in the favour of the Olympians.

The Liberated Ships fought with a single purpose according to single plan. The Batman's tactical assault was coordinated through her. They brought their attack to the rear of the Undead Giant, fighting the bulk of his newly created Warrior Giants. This was a feint, to allow one of their numbers to cut through the undead, and reach the twisted carapace of the Machine-god.

Jo watched as her rebel vessels exhibited greater determination, pace and speed than the enslaved enemy. Especially since they now had leaders, individual vessels that were the Avatars of the Justice League and Terra First. Distinguishable by the unique characteristics these Giant Warriors exhibited. The Rebel forces were learning as they fought for life, against death, and Machine-god, but the enemy's greater numbers slowed their advance.

If only she could be free to interface with individual warriors Jo J'Onzz believed she could persuade some of them to join the rebel cause, just has she had done back in the real world. However her role as the psychic coordinator of the allies' telepathic network made this impossible.

The Martian Manhunter felt the urgency of this moment. Circe had been correct, Ganthlet's unique power ring had only a limited charge, the fire that tore through the Machine-god, that slowed him down, held him back, would soon fail, and this their moment of opportunity would be lost.

Then help arose from an unexpected quarter.

Rising up from the dust of the Elysian dirt emerged another living machine, this time drawing her substance from the dark earth of the Magic Realm, rising to join their number.

Jo was astounded by the evidence of her senses.

This giant's hair was like flame, and vengeance burned in her eyes. The Simolacrum of Lana, a living machine - a biological Android, had also been transformed by the Magic of the Olympian Realm. Just as she was once a slave to the collective, Lana now used her new found freedom to strike against the enemy.

Jo J'Onzz felt Faux Lana's mind assert itself, expanding through the Hive Consciousness of Liberated Ships, defining it. Her humanity, her compassion, her steel and purpose inherited from the late Lana Kent, dead too soon, young and vital, usurping the older simpler intelligences of the living ships hive mind.

"I have this." She told the Martian Manhunter.

Jo understood at once and was grateful. There was no deception – no deceit, just determination to honour the memory of a gracious human being who had been Lana Kent.

This biological Android as Manhunter's creation had been created with the same resources as the ancient mechanical-men. Like them she could connect to, become part of, the Manhunter's living ships hive mind.

"Run interference." J'Onzz replied. "Spare every quarter, remember the dead only migrate to the Machine-god, enlarging his power." Jo added with emphasis the most important tactical objective. "Cairo must get through."

Leaving the heart and mind of the rebel giants, the Martian Manhunter relinquished the network to the Leagues newly forged ally, having seen into her heart and mind. Jo trusted Lana now she had become one within their rebel hive consciousness. This Lana was like an Insect Queen able to inspire her soldiers to fight alongside the Allies Avatars.

The Martian Manhunter moved, phasing through and out into the vast emptiness above the battlefield, there small and unnoticed, she concentrated on the Armies from Atlantis and Themyscira.

"Attack individual enemy vessel combatants" She directed "attempt to take over their Neural Core by placing League transmitters – Let's see if we can't win more hearts and minds."

"And if not" Queen Hippolyta answered her across the Mental Radio of the Amazon's "then incapacitate."

"Yes your Majesty." Jo replied noting the flight patterns of the Amazonian galleons.

"Beware the soil of this place, it has unexpected effects." Jo added.

"Aye" answered an Atlantean "we shall try Amazons" he explained further saying "I am Doctor Vulko, our King and Queen answer Posideon's call, so it falls to me to lead our forces." Then saying "We will spare every quarter, I do not want to empower that monstrous abomination further."

* * *

Aquaman, Mera and the Flash stood ready to disembark from the metamorphosed living vessel, the Liberated Ship from New York. Pausing on the foot of the transformed giant, they clung as the vast living thing moved across the field of battle.

"Are you sure about this Arthur?" Barry Allen asked.

"No I'm not" The Sea King replied "Vulko is a both brave and clever" he shook his head "I have done what I can."

"I was thinking about that." Barry pointed to the green of the Elysian Fields. "Look at what happened to Wonder Woman." He pointed out the colossal form of the Princess in battle alongside Athena and Artemis. "When you say Posideon calls for Champions..."

"Posideon has called out to me. He is the personification of the living sea, and the Patron of Atlantis." Arthur replied. "What can I do - but trust him? Especially here in the realm of the gods."

Barry sighed, shaking his head saying "Well this is a war fought by their rules."

Mera nodded. "The gods call for champions." She slapped him on his back. "We must rise to the occasion."

"Exactly that's what worries me." Barry replied, remembering his Classical education.

"Less talk" Mera announced, taking the first step, saying "I was born in another realm – one distinct and separate from the real world. This is not a time for fear. This is Olympus. Nothing is certain here, not even death, only the battle."

"The gods were the patrons of my nation, they are inconsistent and untrustworthy, but they are not Cronus and the Manhunter Collective." Aquaman added. "Come friend, let's run this race together." Arthur said leaping out onto the sea of green with his wife and Queen.

"Here goes nothing." Barry Allen sighed. He ran, disappearing into invisible super accelerated motion. The Flash found himself running beside Hermes, for only the mercurial messenger of the gods could move through the unique place of speed that the Flash accessed. Barry realised he was looking the god in the eye, that something was profoundly different. The Scarlet Speedster noticed the world had grown smaller. Allen saw that he too stood equal among the gods.

"This is exactly what I was afraid of." He said with a frown.

"Let us keep the undead from joining their god." Hermes told him- adding "My Champion."

Looking back Barry observed the same incredible transformation had magically elevated Meera and Aquaman. They fought like two dancers in union, moving to the sound of music only they could hear. To the Flash it was all completed in slow motion, something that made their movements all the more beautiful, but no less deadly. With a flash of steel, and limbs striking a dramatic beat smashing against the armour of their enemies. The Atlantean's edged toward Posideon. The Sea-god was conjoined with his brothers Hades and Zeus, locked in battle with the Undead Giant, whose fractured form was constantly renewing itself. Growing ever larger, sucking into him the dead.

Barry Allen followed Hermes, they struck aside the shuffling abominations that had once been alive. The Flash as he fought saw that the Guardian's Ganthlet's great Green fire waned. Barry's senses were augmented by the Speed Force to allow him to function at a hyper accelerated state noticed the tiny form of Superman and his Dog flying through those dying flames.

* * *

Ganthlet fell back the power of his otherworldly ring was all but spent. With this knowledge he broadcast his condition to the League, noting to his surprise the task of coordinator had been taken by the Simulacrum of Lana Kent.

The diminutive Oan had opened the Undead Giant's otherwise fluid armour, wounds that had not closed, but with his ring exhausted this would soon change.

It was as the fire faded that the Cairo giant, under the influence of Gotham's Dark Knight made its move, having slipped to the Undead Giant's side, the Batman leapt upwards into the waiting hands of verdant light woven into solid constructs. Hal Jordan led the Green Lanterns, who together propelled Cairo into monstrous colossus that towered above them all. For even the Great three Olympians now stood in the Machine-god's shadow.

As the Green Flames died, Cairo found the target, plunging the giant's sword arm deep into the still open wound in the Machine-god's armour. By doing so the living vessel delivered the crew of this Liberated Spacecraft; The Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Zatana; their new trusted allies, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Lois Lane and Deathstroke along with their allies of convenience the remainder of Terra First, into the belly of the Undead Giant.


	35. Chapter 35

Bruce felt the consciousness of the Machine-god assault him. Burying the Cairo vessels arm into the body of the Undead-giant had consequences. The entity calling itself Cronus was now attacking them on every level. Materially the machine body, a necromantic-cyborg was attempting to assimilate the Cairo Knight Vessel, at the same time the consciousness of the Machine Collective was attempting to usurp his influence. The Batman allowed himself a smile of self-satisfaction, because he had already stepped back from his avatar, who was fighting back against the Android Collective by its own volition.

His Avatar was not alone.

The Hive mind was now functioning as an independent entity. That was the essence of the Leagues strategy, to lead by example. Their actions, their thoughts, had influenced the outward and inward structures of their avatars on-going metamorphosis. The living leviathans had learned independent thought through sharing the ideas and memories of each participant, experiencing their collective desire to live, to be free, these ideas that had spread like wild fire through the rebels, increasing their self-awareness.

The Batman had his misgivings. Terra First had imparted their experiences too. Hence avatars inspired by the like of Vandal Savage, and Circe, fought on the Elysian Fields alongside the Green Arrow and Zatanna. However today they all fought for life.

He was the first of them to engage in this process, and he now was the last to disengage from the Hive minds neural network. Bruce stood up from the chair of pearl. Already the two sides of their allied forces had congregated in their respective groups. Among Terra First he noted that the incapacitated members of Team Luthor had been revived. Lex had spare armour to replace the damaged units, unsurprising since the one thing the Manhunters did very well was manufacture machines. The hybrid technology Luthor had developed was present, and upstanding. The suits had the capacity to function autonomously, as they were in actuality hollow robots; that is almost wearable Manhunter Androids that stood waiting to be worn.

This part of the plan was something that troubled the Detective even more than allowing his allies of convenience to create avatars of their personalities within the Hive Mind. At least as Jo had pointed out to him, the collective nature of the Hive-think would ameliorate the extremes of their individual minds.

"Now let us bring this war to our enemy's heart." A gleeful Vandal Savage clapped his hands at the prospect of this promised incredible journey; diving into the body of the Machine-god.

"Indeed." Luthor said. "And I have the tools – for my friends," Luthor gestured to Terra First "and my... er new friends." He said looking at the Dark Knight.

Batman frowned beneath his cowl. "You are sure Luthor that you have bypassed the Manhunter overrides?"

"Since we are for the sake of our world friends today, I will overlook that slight." Lex replied. "Unless of course you're prepared to trust in your Kevlar armour, and your muscle to take on a god." Luthor asked with a smirk.

"If we're going to be any help, we need to get inside," Green Arrow observed, "and that means using Team Luthor battle-suits." He stated. "Look, I don't like it either, but you and I, we are just human, and where we're going, well it just isn't."

"We however will be fine." Hawkman stated.

"The Nth Metal in our blood and gear will protect us." Hawkgirl added. "Besides," she said, "those suits wouldn't fit over our wings." Which she flexed to make her point.

Batman didn't smile. Circe and Zatana equally did not need Team Luthor armour. The rest of their alliance was either human, or human enough to require protection in the hostile environment of the Undead-giant's interior. Each suit's battery reactor was only good for a few hours. It would have to be enough.

They made their way through the vast vessel using the elevator like transit system. This still functioned although its network had been realigned within the much changed structure of the living spacecraft. Covering miles in moments the uncomfortable allies travelled into the shaft of the vast pearlescent sword. This weapon was an extension of the Cairo Vessels metamorphosed armoured shell.

As they processed to the exit point at the swords tip Batman was distracted by a dark shadow. For a moment he thought he had lost his mind. Suddenly he was looking through the body of the ship; all the way to the outside. Bruce saw Hades alongside his brothers, fighting, as if a window had opened up between him and them. It seemed to the Dark Knight that the god of the underworld was looking directly at him. Then he cursed the power of Magic once again, as he found himself immersed in the muddy ground, transported from the sword within the Undead-giant, to the feet of the dark god Hades in an instant.

Here the green of Elysian field was mixed with the blood of the slain.

He was not alone. Talia looked at him, her face shocked and dirty, soiled by the black mire.

Bruce looked for the others, but quickly he grasped that it was just her and him. Why he had no idea. Angry at his ignorance, the Batman channelled this frustration into action.

Logic told him that it was inevitable that any moment he and Talia would be crushed under the skyscraper like boots of the dark Olympian Titan, as above the three brothers battled as one against the growing grey death machine.

Bruce scrabbled in the black mud, and grabbed Talia's hand. The black ooze threatened to swallow them, sucking both deeper as sinking sand. Dragging Talia to him, and he to her through the mire, the Batman released an explosive grappling hook. His titanium alloy bolt and high tensile carbon nano-tube wire shot upwards, the target Hades himself. It was desperation on his part. Could man-made metal bite hold of a god?

Bruce figured he had to try.

As the line snapped tight, and Batman fired the explosive line winder, he got his answer. Bursting forth from the ooze he and Talia shot upwards into the Aegis Cloak of the god of the Underworld.

-8-

A tower of the dead.

That's what Victoria Stone saw. One of many images in her line of sight, seen through the eyes of the vast living organism that had snatched her, her father, Irons, Charles, White and Olsen, and large chunks of her father's workplace from the S.T.A.R Labs Metropolis.

I have more than one brain, Vic realised. Far more than one, for each function and system, biological or mechanical had a mind of its own, able to act independently as well as collectively.

Vic watched as the great vessel burst through the black earth of the strange new world, one of the last to make the transition.

Her father answered her. "I'm sorry Vic, I had to try, had to save you."

Further across the huge chamber. "Does anyone have the faintest idea where the hell we are?" Perry White asked.

Vic embraced her father. Cyborg knew he was afraid. Then she turned to the others. As Cyborg; she rolled the new identity around in her head, she could explain their location. So she did. "Vessel has transited between relative dimensions to sub reality designation Olympus."

They stared at her, uncertainty written in their faces; how could they forget my earlier machine like appearance, she thought. Hell I'm talking like a machine.

"_Cyborg's skin set to human de__fault camouflage. Alert level maximum. Perceived threat level very high."_ The voice from inside her mind was an ever present reminder, that she he had more than one brain.

Perry White frowned deeply.

"I think I can show you." She told them. Her Cyborg augmented memory explained, saying. "Incoming images from Manhunter Collective via Ship designate Metropolis via Nanite interface."

With a thought Cyborg projected a three dimensional image of the conditions outside.

Perry White broke the collective stunned silence with a question. "Where on Earth are we?"

"I don't think we are on Earth Perry." Sarah Charles told her friend. "If I understand what Victoria said earlier, we're in some alternative dimension."

"This is the Olympian Realm." She agreed.

"Oh man." Jimmy Olsen exclaimed. "Is that a Green Lantern?" He asked pointing to a speck enveloped in green light, flying insect like in front of the giant armoured knights on the field of battle.

"Yes." Vic replied. "One of several."

-8-

Queen Hippolyta led her forces alongside Hal Jordan's Green Lanterns. Both the Amazon's and Corps were tiny insect like specks against the giants on the Elysian Fields, but they were effective none the less.

With Hippolyta on the deck of her ship was the diminutive Oan Ganthlet. The Guardian had retired to the Queens Galley when his unique power ring had become all but exhausted. Now he watched his Green Lanterns continue the fight. Standing beside the Amazonian Queen and her General, they saw how Hal Jordan parodied their situation. The brash test pilot created facsimiles of legendary Stygian killer's – these green hornets packed the sting of his power ring's will; the intent of the Oan energy construct technology was pacification, not destruction. For all the might of the power ring as a weapon, the avowed purpose was wherever possible non-lethal. Hal Jordan's sting was set to stun, daze and confuse.

The Giant Knights, despite their pearlescent armour and space going origin flinched, ducked and dived as if fearful of Hal's swarm.

The Amazon Queen noted that Jordan's accidental creation was a potent image."Well done Hal Jordan." She broadcast on the Amazon's Mental Radio, adding. "No doubt our galleys are your inspiration?"

Hal called back. "Roger that... Your Majesty. I'm glad you like my style."

Hippolyta said nothing, but Philappus scowled.

"Old ways of thinking become ingrained." The Queen said, looking across the deck of her flagship. In the air over the Elysian Fields the other vessels in Themysciran fleet of flying galleys, danced on their wing like oars of gossamer. The Queen broadcast to her Warriors the same tactical observation. "They fear us, as small as we are. Exploit this psychological advantage."

The black Amazon General Philippus agreed with this at least. "It is fitting our galleys are to these giants like wasps, and our lances are their sting."

"Perhaps even more than fitting given the honourable history of that name." The Guardian said, adding. "You are right Queen of the Amazons; old ways of thinking do become ingrained, instinctual. For many generations these giants lived as space going animals, yet these living vessels were bred from terrestrial ancestors. Hence they retain deep in their makeup instincts from that time. The good and the bad. Loyalty and fear."

"I am but a slip of girl compared to you Guardian, but I have lived long enough to breed generations upon generations of horse. I understand." Hippolyta said. "Sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses."

Hippolyta watched the enemy giants flinch away from Hal Jordans green hornets, this in itself gave the rebels opportunity to press their attack, and given the Machine-god's numerical superiority on the field of battle this was no mean achievement.

The Living Vessel from New York was conspicuous by its size, alongside the Ship from Kansas, two giant armoured Knights in pearl pressed forward. New York grappled with an attacking Warrior. The Amazon Queen knew Atlantean forces would cross from the New York Vessel, breaking into the enemy; these invading marines mission was to convert or failing that incapacitate.

"We may yet tip the balance." She said. Leading the charge against the Machine-gods rear third, were the avatars of the Justice League and their Allies, identifiable because these rebel ships had taken metamorphosed their appearance to reflect that association, with colour and sigil.

"Such is the nature of heavenly realms." Ganthlet noted. "Reality evolves from the sum of the living things within it, as opposed to the sum of living things evolving inside and from what is real."

"Aye." The Queen agreed. "We must be ready for the change, for when the balance is tipped, so this reality will be turned upside down."

Ganthlet broadcast using the residual power in his ring. "Green Lanterns - Jordan's insect like creation is proving to be an effective psychological weapon. Advise you execute similar constructs."

His fellow Lanterns responded by creating their own versions of insect aggressors. Soon a second Armada was seen in the air, as green swarms flew in and around the Amazon's airborne ships of war. Predatory insect like creatures, constructs of light, some earthly, many alien, all shared a frightful sting.

-8-

"My God" Irons gasped. "If that was a man, then the scale of these warriors... is gigantic."

"You are correct." Cyborg adjusted the image to pin point the Green Lantern of Earth. Then extrapolating from his human scale dimensions, the graphics demonstrated the incredible size of these giant warriors; and then again comparing these to the towering machine of death and destruction; the Undead Giant. Cyborg observed. "Which makes this edifice even bigger still." What she and others now saw through the Metropolis Vessels eyes was in no way humanoid.

Resembling a medieval siege tower the grey tower dominated the battlefield. To Vic it looked like someone had taken three battleships stood them on end, pressing V-shaped hull to hull, so that each vessel was one third of the whole. A head of sorts still graced the uppermost point of the mechanism, but one that possessed three sides, and a multitude of what appeared to be lenses, which in turn looked a little like eyes.

Vic studied her Cybernetic systems on going analysis of the grey tower. "What's more it's growing." She observed.

"How is growing?" Her father asked.

"By absorption." Vic replied. Zooming in on the base of the grey tower, she interpreted the data she was leaching from the surrounding vessels Nueral Net. "It is killing the living and sucking up the dead at its base." Vic paused, her conclusion was unsettling. "This machine is a Necromantic-cyborg. It is composed of dead tissue and mechanical parts." Unlike me, she thought; I'm alive.

She repeated that thought. I am alive – as if attempting to convince herself.

Victoria adjusted the image zoom to pan across the surface of the unholy edifice. Grey limbs jostled alongside great cannon that fired flaming chemical projectiles bursting over the green of the Elysian Fields raining down as Greek Fire.

"Identified Olympians." Cyborg said. Vic thoughts zeroing the projected image onto the gods. Cyborg added text to the video - the names of the Olympians based on their armour's sigils.

"That giant, that's Wonder Woman." Perry White stated. "What is she fighting?"

"A purple fire dragon Chief" Olsen volunteered the obvious.

Victoria heard her internal voice once more. It said. "_Biomorphogenic ectoplasmic matrix encountered_ – _Warning_; _Vessel_ _undergoing_ _thaumatological Metamorphosis._"

"Ping."

Magic. Cyborg understood it was a consequence of being in the Olympian Realm, and magic was reshaping the very vessel that had stolen them from Metropolis. Vic realised her Cybernetic memory knew it because the 'Ping' had told her; she now knew where these giant armoured warriors had come from.

Outside of the vessel Magic crackled. Cyborg heard it through her nanite connection to the now evolving space craft. Too late she tried to sever that connection.

At that moment Zeus unleashed the full fury of his god-storm; god-winds tore into the massive edifice of the Machine-god. Zeus' lightning struck accompanied by the sound of thunder. His rain turned the green fields black under foot, as the scrapping warriors churned the grassland to mud.

-8-

Superman and Krypto struggled through a sea of grey purple spheres, bristling with blades that tried to cut and kill. Only to break against his super human highly evolved invulnerable hide. The Machine-god's internal defence system was attacking him, these spheres were cybernetic versions of the Living Vessels own super scaled imunno-defense system.

Superman and his dog had a clear advantage in strength but the enemy had numbers – vast numbers in the megalopolis scale necromantic-cyborg, and in the total darkness they just kept on coming.

From beneath the Man of Tomorrow came the sound of metal being torn and Superman saw a vast pearlescent sword slide past him. His super-vision functioned even in the absence of light because his eyes emitted radiation as well as interpreting it. This blade cut through the Undead Giants interior, its gigantic size pushing aside the defensive spheres as if they were tiny soap bubbles. Yet the shell white material fizzed as the balls burst releasing their digestive liquids splashing black on the pearly sword, betraying the shell materials origin.

Eyes down, Superman turned over in flight, he saw through the Necromantic-cyborg body with his x-ray like vision. A Living metamorphosed Vessel had crashed through the weakened exterior. Remarkable as this was, this intervention was made all the more so because the former spacecraft looked like it had been to the same tailor as Gotham's Dark Knight.

"Jo can you hear me." Superman called across the League's Network. Last he'd heard his colleague had been coordinating the rebel vessels. Was the Martian responsible for this?

He knew the Hive mind was a drain on Jo's telepathic resources, but he needed to know what help was coming his way.

Superman concentrated on his role as he and Ganthlet had planned, making use of the sword's destructive pathway.

Punching here. Kicking there. Krypto's teeth snapping and tearing. Superman fought through the defensive spheres. Following the path of the blade. He looked out and beyond at the battle on the Elysian Fields. There he saw other avatars of his colleagues, even his enemies, together fighting for the rebels. This part of the plan had worked.

He tried his communicator again. Perhaps the Undead-giant was able to interfere with its function?

"Magic." He said, shaking his head in grateful disbelief. "I didn't use to like it." He said to the Dog. Smashing into a bladed sphere, he grappled and threw spinning into the others ahead, scattering them like marbles. "But now Krypto I think I could use some of that hocus pocus."

His eyes flashed red, as Superman ignited a path onward. "You know, to magic me through this megalopolis of a robot."

The dog growled in response, and tore through another wave of the Necromantic-cyborg's internal army.

"Sure," Superman said, "I've got you and you know which way to go." The Spheres emerged from any and every side, oozing out from the walls of the undead giant's interior.

Superman heard the welcome squeak from his earwig, and Jo came through, her telepathy cutting through the interference. "Apologies Superman, I have been attempting to commune with the last command ship to arrive." Jo told him. "How far are you from your target?"

"I'm closing." Superman replied. "A few miles yet. It's pretty tough going." He admitted. "I thought you done recruiting? You were coordinating the rebels and keeping the Collective out of their Hive Mind?"

"Good fortune Superman. An unexpected ally has declared for our side."

Superman burst through the dark viscous digestive acids of the spheres. Like a bullet through a crate of water balloons. He smashed through an internal wall punching his way into another void.

"Well we do need all the help we can get." The Man of Tomorrow stated. "If we are to tip the balance." He flew on, already the chamber was attacking. The walls reacted to his presence, morphing into weapons, cannons fired, projectiles rocketed from the floor, and all the while a sea of black cybernetic spheres poured into the void.

"I have turned over the rebel Living Vessels Hive Mind to one they has accepted as their Hive Queen." Jo told him. Superman at once thought of Hippolyta whose forces were fighting alongside the Green Lanterns, and the Atlanteans, but the truth surprised him. The Martian sent a telepathic image, and Superman saw the face of the Andriod's simulacrum of Lana Kent.

He smiled even the midst of the fight.

Faux Lana, the Androids weapon against him had become a weapon against them.

"The Manhunters gave the biological enhanced copy of Lana Kent personality." Jo explained. "That has become an independent mind, coupled with her access to the Hive and Collective, it means she can act as a lynch pin, holding together the rebel living ships Hive mind, steeling them against their former masters."

Superman detected movement.

"Incidentally more Help is on the way." Jo informed him.

"So I see." Superman replied. He punched past the tip of the vast pearlescent sword. It acted like an enormous needle delivering the Leagues allies from Terra First into the body of the Undead Giant.

Circe took the lead, her magic crackling from her, the transformative powers of the Enchantress of Aeaea striking the dead flesh. This changed and fell away from the never alive bionic components. Magical metamorphosis happened once again. Circe's magic caused this dead meat to become frightful things; the stuff of nightmares. These hideous bundles of horns, tusks, teeth and claws were Circe's creatures to control, and the Ageless Sorceress was on Superman's side.

Explosions of heavy munitions indicated the arrival of battle ready Lex Luthor in his signature purple and greeen. Ras Al Ghul and Vandal Savage followed. A moment of x-ray like vision confirmed their identity. They wore similar hybrid armour to that used by Luthor, charged by a Manhunter science. Others followed, including the television reporter Lois Lane. It seemed the Leagues intelligence had been correct, Lex had begun building his own team using hybrid technology.

The Man of Steel was grateful for the assistance, even if it came from such an unexpected quarters. As Superman pushed onwards, and upwards, towards the heart of this vast killing machine.

-8-

The vessel from Metropolis was being transformed. At the same time Victoria Stone's mind was linked into this living spacecraft's sensory network. Vic reeled mentally, such was intensity of this new data, and it bombarded her. The ship was becoming truly self-aware; feeling confused and scared as she stumbled forward through the mud. Newly changed 'Metropolis' was trying to find her feet, and negotiating her new-found limbs.

Then everything got worse.

Vic heard him. Cyborg and the Metropolis ship, together they heard the call of Cronus.

Vic fell to her knees with a metallic clunk. Her hands raised, it was a very human reaction. I'm _not_ a machine she thought. "No!" She tried to refuse him, but the Machine-god's command demanded absolute obedience.

Her father ran to her. His hand touched her synthetic skin. She read his pulse and body temperature. "What's wrong?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I can hear him."

"Who?" Irons asked.

"Cronus – the Machine-god. The force behind all this. He's commanding me to die!"

-8-

"Reality here is what we make it." Hades told the Batman.

Talia hung onto her sometimes lover. She saw a boy that said he was the god of the underworld. Pale like old bone, his hair was flames of fire. This Hades relaxed on a chair of bones, which in turn rested on a black mist that was an approximation of shadow. He seemed distracted, twitching here and there; it reminded Talia of their son playing a video game.

Was that the case, she wondered. Was he in two places at the same time? Outside fighting the grey tower of death, and here seated on this garish throne.

Bruce hung beside her in the darkness; an instant ago the shadow had appeared to be the folds of the dark god's cloak. His grappling line was attached to something above, or at least she thought it was. Talia held him tightly. Bruce knew of her feelings, just as she understood his genius and his mission. Still she was not ready for his next choice. Batman released the line. They fell, but only a short way. Talia did not make a sound; her father had raised her to be a silent and effective assassin. If she flinched it was only to hold Bruce all the tighter.

The mist was substance, after a fashion, and swirled around them, a times reaching their knees. Bruce stared at the seated child avatar of Hades. "Why have you brought me here?" He asked. "I was about to direct an assault on the interior of the Machine-god."

"Your use of the Living ships as avatars was cunning." Hades told them. "My brothers did not expect a mortal mind could adapt and employ such tactics. I on the other hand, well I live in the shadows, and I notice the things that live in them too."

"Send me back." Bruce insisted, but Hades shook his head.

"Our avatars will fight on without us." Talia said "We've shown them how, they have learned from our memories. We must take the fight to the enemy."

"I know." Hades yawned. "You believe have to strike at the heart of the beast – at this self-styled Cronus."

"Yes. We have a plan." Bruce stated.

"The body of my father resides with me." Hades replied. "His soul, well that is another matter, it was dragged away to deep darkness that is Nyx, to dream forever."

The Batman folded his arms. "We have it on good authority that there is someone at the centre of this, someone more substantial than some ghost."

"And of course Dark Knight you want vengeance on this architect of this perfidy?" Hades raised his hand, and continued "As do we – but do you think you can don the armour created by Lex Luthor using Man-hunter technology and turn it against the Machine-god – do you really believe he would let that happen?"

Batman considered this. "Lex has bypassed the override."

"So he believes. If I am sure of anything it is Lex Luthor believes in himself." Hades chuckled. "But his human genius is insufficient, and his working knowledge of Manhunter technology rudimentary."

"What else can a mere man do?" Batman asked angry.

Talia gripped his arm tightly, she wanted to remind him this was god, and they were human, but she also knew that was the problem; the Dark Knight felt keenly his humanity when surrounded by Meta-humans. He needed to be useful.

Hades was however gracious. He smiled. "Men who accept gifts from the gods are never merely human."

"That's what's worrying me." Batman replied.

Hades laughed once more. "As they say, what happens in Olympus stays in Olympus."

-8-

Victoria Stone's consciousness echoed with the Machine-god's command; die. Her Cybernetic systems had detected the siren call of Necromantic-Cyborg via the Leviathan vessel that had swallowed them all.

Cyborg felt irresistible pull of the Collective. "He's summoning the living ships to die." She gasped to Silas Stone.

"_In death to be joined to him, to be one forever within the Machine-god._" Cyborg stated in a voice that was not Vic's. "_Living Ships on arrival to Olympian Realm_ _undergo_ _thaumatological Metamorphosis into humanoid warriors. Battle is engaged between forces loyal to Cronus and rebels who have allied themselves with the Olympians."_

"What's happened to her?" Sarah Charles asked. Victoria felt her touch. She heard her father's voice add. "I don't know Sarah. One moment she was here, but now she's no longer responding."

I have to get a control of myself, she thought. I have to resist this death wish. The internal battle of will seemed to go on a long time, in reality it was only seconds. Then regaining her self-control, Victoria turned to her father; and to Irons. "The nanites, dad," She asked. "Where did you get them?"

"Why?" Irons asked desperate. His face spoke fear and dread.

"I can feel the Manhunter Collective inside of me – there is a central intelligence; a god of machines - who calls itself Cronus; it's commanding me to die."

The image she was projecting flickered and shorted out.

Silas shook his head. "Oh God! I'm so sorry..." His voice tailed off.

Sarah Charles grabbed hold him. She was angry, but she said. "Silas you couldn't know."

"Try and fight them." Irons begged her.

But the only voice Victoria heard was voice of the Machine god. "Die."


	36. Chapter 36

Cyborg said to herself. "I may have more than one brain, but _I am_ Victoria Stone."

She fought to take control of her new body.

She could hear her father, Irons and Charles talking, trying to explain their actions to the reporters, White and Olsen.

John Henry was saying. "Inactive microscopic machines were discovered in the wreckage of the Metropolis Manhunter Incident."

"The party Lex Luthor held." Jimmy Olsen said.

"Yes, and samples were brought to S.T.A.R. Labs for analysis." Sarah Charles admitted.

So, Victoria thought, this had been her father's work. Attempting to decipher the Androids Alien science. Now her hybrid cybernetic body existed because of this Manhunter technology.

It was the logical explanation. Why else would she feel so drawn to obey the Manhunter's Machine-god?

Equally Irons was right. She had to fight.

"No." Vic shouted again.

From within her she heard the now familiar sound again, "Ping" and with it the desire to die at the feet of the Machine-god evaporated as fast as the command had arrived. Purged from her in blaze of light – of volatile energy. It was like she being healed from the inside out.

It was a brilliance that made her body glow from within, and a rainbow of colours danced under her skin.

"What did you do to her?" Jimmy Olsen asked, his face betrayed compassion and concern for her; brave and selfless given their collective peril.

Silas Stone gasped "You see the device's volatile energy reactivated the inoperative nanites." Her father tried to explain his work. "We found that the nanites automatically rebuilt damage; damaged tissue, damaged machinery, whatever – it didn't matter, once reactivated by the devices energy they just worked." He shook his head. "When I saw my daughter so hurt,... I had to try."

"Device?" Perry asked anger in his voice. "What device?"

"I know dad. You had to try." Vic said to their surprise. "And I'm okay now. I'm back in the driving seat of this body you gave me." Vic rose powerfully to her feet, smiling a broad grin. It felt good to be in control once more.

The 'Ping' she had heard was short duration as a sound, but it represented a great deal of information.

"I contain 'The Device' now." she told them.

Irons coughed. "It's in you?"

She nodded.

"Wait, what is this all about?" Jimmy asked. Perry shrugged exasperated.

"It's the energy of creation in a box, the spark of life bottled; captured and contained." Vic replied. She restarted her image projection. "It's a fusion of magic and science." Vic said. "It's not unlike this realm of Olympus in that sense – in a way they are related."

"The nanites must have rebuilt you using whatever was close by." John Henry concluded. "The advanced technology of the Containment vessel." Irons stated. "Now I understand the nanites somehow co-opted 'The Device' itself."

"And here I was thinking that the Manhunter's had gotten hold of it." Sarah Charles said.

"For the Love of God, and the last time. What is 'The Device'." White asked.

Sarah Charles shrugged. "We don't know for sure Perry - look it was recovered alongside a powerful ancient artefact, don't bother asking, I know, I know.. but even if I did know what that artefact was, I couldn't tell you, hell I shouldn't be talking about this now, but given what's going on..." She hesitated.

Perry folded his arms and frowned.

Sarah sighed and continued. "Well_ '_The Device' was a small gold box. Strange markings on its surface. Unfathomable and indestructible. It was kept in the Black Room at Area 51 until the Starro incident."

"That everyone remembers. The public début of the Justice League." Jimmy recalled.

"Seriously?" Perry replied. "And I thought the Black Room was just conspiracy nonsense." White then grunted. "So I guess S.T.A.R. Labs got this box after that."

"Yes." Sarah agreed. "Post Starro there was pressure from on high to come up with something – anything to combat that kind of Alien threat. All manner of forgotten and buried projects were reactivated."

Vic had learned a great deal from that latest 'Ping'.

'The device' that had first spoken to her using her mother's voice, was another worldly power.

Vic now had a name, or at least in English a translation of 'The Device's' title; Mother-Box.

Cyborg then said. "Symbiont power source is by mutual consent is a New Genesis Mother-Box."

"Which means?" Irons asked.

"A sentience. It speaks to me occasionally." Vic replied. "Well it 'Pings' at me any way." Cyborg made an approximation of sound. "And that noise isn't just a note - it's a data stream, and somehow I can understand, as if it were a thousand words, not just one sound."

"Fascinating." Irons replied. "And this New Genesis Mother-Box is related to this reality – to Olympus?"

"Not exactly." Vic interpreted her Cyborg memory. "Not this realm - but something, somewhere very like it."

"Another alternative reality you mean?" Jimmy speculated.

"Perhaps young man." Sarah Charles agreed. "I wonder how it came to Earth?" She asked.

Victoria wondered that too.

"Ping!" Vic felt a swell of maternal memories and emotions towards someone bright and beautiful. "A visitor to Earth seeking answers. Seeking Wisdom." Cyborg said, adding. "Accessing Mother-box records; New god emissary Obsidia." The image Cyborg was projecting changed to images which appeared to be from Earth's past.

"That looks like ancient Jerusalem." Perry stated.

Cyborg's said. "An ebony Queen from the south as she visits a Red King famed for his wise rule. Gifts are exchanged, a slight of hand is performed by one concealed among her entourage. This is the New-god Obsidia, she places a golden box, the device, amongst the Queens tributes to the King."

"'The Device' is to record data." Vic said.

"Dark painted lips meet the ruddy face of David's son; Solomon the Wise embraces Sheba's queen. Her gifts of gold are taken to the newly constructed Temple; to the eyes of Zadok the High Priest. The box is picked a bearded man, his hair distinguished by grey. "Ping" goes the box. The man frowns, He studies the strange golden markings on its surface, before saying. "Ahimaaz my son, clear this place."

"Alone behind closed doors within the sanctuary Zadok hurries behind the veil, something unspoken compels him perhaps the certainty of faith. The High Priest enters the inner sanctum."

Cyborg continues. "Zadok approaches, careful lest his hands touch it, and feel the wrath of the incredible energies contained within. Carefully he drops the golden box the final hairsbreadth and onto the lid. There the Mother-Box rests under the wings of two sculptured golden Cherubs, that decorate this gilded wooden trunk.

"Ping!"

Vic hears Jimmy gasp in exclamation as the projected image changes as time shifts into fast forward, becoming a blur of images. Then snap shots appear from the Mother-Box's recordings. "Flames rise and swords fall, but no hand can reach out and take back the small golden box, not even the New-god to whom it belongs. Obsidia is repulsed by the power of the relic. Then Jerusalem falls to Babylon." Cyborg explains.

Vic snaps her consciousness out of these memories. Her mind is reeling and she is as amazed as the others.

"That was the Ark." Jimmy Olsen said. "As in – of the covenant, Ark." He turned to Perry and Sarah. His face full of excitement. "I guess we know those stories about the Black Room were true after all." He grinned broadly.

-8-

Hades individual gift was a double edged sword, both literally and figuratively. The dark god had chosen his Knight and Champion. He had chosen Bruce and Talia, and part of that compact was for each one a weapon, a god-forged blade, and all the magic that came with that.

The child stood before them, and in each hand a blade, presenting the hilt to Bruce and Talia, inviting them to accept his favour.

"_Poseidon_ has chosen King Orin called Arthur, and his Queen Mera." Hades told them. "So I have chosen you."

Batman understood the concept, but the result was another matter. For Diana, Arthur and Mera had been elevated to the status of gods, giants besides the titans of Olympus, fighting against and alongside the vast vessels who had become Warriors on both sides of the conflict.

"So Hermes has chosen your fast footed Flash." Hades added.

Bruce hadn't seen Barry, giant or not, but given his effective invisibility it was to be expected.

"The balance is tipping; all it needs is a push." Hades told them. "Your tactics are sound, you must take the fight to the Machine-god, but to do that you need the right tools."

The Batman felt a sense of relief. He did not want to be elevated to the status and size of an Olympian Titan. The Dark Knight looked at the god-forged blades. They were as black as Hades eyes, with razor sharp edges.

Tools were something Bruce could relate to. "We've come this far." he said as he looked at Talia. She nodded. "Together." She said.

They grasped hold of the black on black swords.

The transition was instantaneous once more, this time Bruce and Talia were plunged into the midst of battle.

Magic resonated around about them. Zatana and Circe's spell illuminated up the light less interior of the Machine god. The Dark Knight found the sword Hades had given him not only connected him to Talia, allowing them to share their thoughts, enabling them to work as one, it also protected him from the hostile environment on the Machine-god's interior. The digestive acid attacks from the defensive spheres did not penetrate the dark mist that clung to both Talia and him. A supernatural armour.

Moreover the Batman recognised that Hades had not acted unilaterally. The sword recognised the fingerprints of the other Olympians.

Zatana wore armour bearing the eagle and owls of Athena. Oliver Queen the Cresent Moon of Artemis and her Hound Helm. The Black Canary had been granted the bright sigil of Apollo's golden harp; fitting as in his armour she could use her fearsome Canary Cry, the sonic attack shattering the cybernetic defenders. The Hawks used their wings like knives; their maces were enhanced by Nth metal energy too, shattering the internal walls above them. They had gained no additional armour, they had that mystical metal in their blood, rather each wore a fragrant rose; Aphrodite had chosen them, and granted them her magic here. Lastly the Champion of Ares was not one of their number, or from Terra First, or Team Luthor, although Deathstroke had pretended to be in Lex's pay. Slade Wilson wore the colours of the God of Blood-lust. He wore his helm and carried his shield, moving with his power, his sword was devastating in its destruction of the enemy's defenders and the substance of the Machine-god's being. For the first time the Batman could see an end to this war in sight. With their attack the vast Necromantic-cyborg edifice shook, for the first time the Machine-gods relentless growth abated.

-8-

The living vessel Metropolis was still enraptured by the Undead giant's siren call. Vic thought about the consequences; what happens to me, to the others, if the Metropolis Vessel reaches the Machine-god?

"_Death for all, fol__lowed by absorption of all_."

"Vic what's wrong?" Silas Stone said, his voice troubled.

Vic realised she had been concentrating on her internal dialogue. Outwardly appearing to shut down. Thinking about this dilemma, Vic's anyaltical engine provided an answer.

"_Recommend_ d_elegation to systemic artificial intelligence nodes."_

Of course, she thought, I have more than one brain; I can tell the cybernetics associated with my tongue and voice box to converse with my dad and the others. I can really multi-task.

She laughed inwardly.

"Are you all right?" John Henry asked.

"Yes, sorry – I'm fine." Victoria told them. "I am currently observing the Manhunter Collective." As she spoke Cyborg's metal armour reappeared. Like thousands of pixels turning to mercury, she stood ready to fight. "Well as good as a machine-girl can get."

"_Combat ready._" Her internal voice chimed.

"Seriously what now?" John Henry asked interpreting her change in appearance as confirmation of an external threat.

Vic reconsidered her opinion of this man. A consequence of my augmented memory she admitted that he was both brave and clever. "Now we have to work out how to stop this ship killing itself and killing us with it." She told Irons.

The big man's face registered shock, but he simply replied. "How can I help?"

Vic's delegated the answer to her Cyborg systems; the analytical engine crunched options, then Cyborg continued outlining how to link the lab's computers with the ship. John Henry and her father listened and acted. At the same time her Cybernetic Immuno-defense system was manufacturing nanobots to fabricate that connection. Meanwhile Vic's conscious mind was focused on the Collective. Another independent intelligence was piggybacking into the Manhunters link to the living vessels hive mind; searching for something.

Her analytical engine concluded. _Justice League is the force behind the Rebellion of Metropolis' sister ships – specifically the Martian Manhunter; Jo J'Onzz is_ _broadcasting._

Vic smiled inwardly, the League had organised the rebellion.

She could hear Jo J'Onzz appealing directly to their 'Metropolis' Vessel to come over to rebels' side; to embrace life not death.

Her Cyborg Systems identified 'Metropolis' as one of the larger vessels among the metamorphosed warriors. The tactical analysis was that this ship was a key player, and a leader.

"_Opening Comm sub routine._"

"Ping."

"_Mother-box telepathic interface established_."

"Jo." She began. "I'm currently aboard this living spacecraft from Metropolis." She paused.

Outside herself she was telling her Father and Irons about why there were rebels fighting for the Olympians. Her voice was saying "The Justice League."

Inside she felt the Martian's telepathic mind centre in on her consciousness.

"Ping!"

"By the Twin Moons of Ma'aleca'andra!" Jo exclaimed. "How can this be?"

"Ping."

"The lost Mother-box of Obsidia." The Martian asked Vic, her thoughts carried surprise and wonder. "Are you her – it is a long time since Obsidia visited Ma'aleca'andra."

"_Ma'aleca'andra is Martian Native – extinc__tion event prior to Homo Sapiens- designation for Sol's fourth planet, Mars_." Her augmented Memory informed her consciousness.

"No, I'm not Obsidia." Vic replied to the Martian, she felt embarrassed and awestruck.

"But surely a New-god from New Genesis?"

"I'm Victoria Stone from Metropolis."

Vic continued saying. "I have tapped into this animals neural net, I think I can communicate directly with it..."

"Wait you are human." Jo interrupted. Vic felt her thoughts brushed by the probing mind of the Alien Telepath.

"I am a collection of things, biology and technology. Believe me it when I say this was a bigger a shock for me, than you."

Vic communicated her understanding of what she was.

"Cyborg." Jo said. "Can you connect me to the Metropolis vessel?" she asked. Caution was evident through her thoughts, as was hope, and a measure of faith.

"I can. If you're ready."

"_Establishing link_."

The Martian Manhunter's mind reached out to the intelligence that was this living vessel. Sharing with Metropolis the truth about the Machine-god's protocol 666.

"_Warning. Warning. Incoming – Manhunter Android._" Vic's internal voice calmly announced.

Cyborg's systems reacted faster than Vic's human consciousness, her right mercurial hand reformed into a glowing energy cannon. Vic found she was reacting as if by instinct. The Android burst through the wall of chamber. The Manhunter showed scant regard for the structure of the living vessel. The Collective demanded absolute loyalty. The machine's target was Vic.

"_Conclusion: Attacking Android means to sever telepathic cross link with this vessel."_

"No sh.." Vic cursed through clenched teeth as the cannon roared. The energy was as volatile as the fire that had consumed her body only a short while ago. I can measure in minuets back to the time when I was human, Vic thought as the fire engulfed the machine.

Like wax the metal melted and exposed darker internals.

As the Android fell on her it reforged itself, time and time again in those few moments. By the time the machine hit her, it was moving like a bullet. Red hot metal was sent spraying of molten metal over the ruins of the stolen Laboratory.

John Henry Irons grabbed Sarah Charles and Silas Stone. Pushing them clear, he turned his broad still naked back to the fire. Hot metal fell on him like rain. His skin burned.

The reporters took cover behind a lump of broken concrete.

The Android was no longer humanoid, like its god any resemblance to the human form that the Guardians had used as their template millennia past, was abandoned in the heat of battle. The writhing collection of limbs smashed into her Cyborg body, crashing not into her exactly but a projection of her armour. Cyborg systems had extended, without her needing to ask, a vast curved shield, appearing to be made of pixels of mercury. It was a web of tiny machines, manufactured internally by her Cybernetic Immuno-Defence system, and deployed at incredible speed; the nanites meshed together creating a wafer thing physical shield that was charged with repulsive energy.

At the same moment Vic received confirmation that the Martian Manhunters telepathic plea had been successful. Jo J'Onzz had delivered in a moment a concentrated stream of consciousness, memories of evidence, the collective memories of the rebel hive mind, and the individual awareness's it represented. Vic grasped why this message was so compelling it was emancipation from nameless enforced slavery into independent freedom of life. The desperation of the Android's attack made cold logical sense; sentient life was an anathema to their Collectives absolute dictatorship.

Driving the Manhunter back Vic smashed the machine into the shell floor. Metal broke and twisted, other liquid like mercury ran in pools. Thrusting her right hand into the pooling liquid Cyborg delivered a backwash of nanites. The microscopic robots replicated and converted the broken Manhunter material. Attempting to reassemble Vic caught the reforming torso with another burst of volatile energy from her left hand. The Torso buckled, and broke. The Android was down.

Vic span around, a burst of light alerted her. Her senses zoomed in on the brilliance, it was short lived. In the space was smoke, and the smell of iron. A muscular but ugly giant of man stood there, he would have been taller still but for misshapen legs. The stranger carried an oversized blacksmith's heavy hammer.

"_Hephaestus__." Her inner voice declared._

-8-

Wonder Woman was the first among the Olympian Champions. First to be elevated, and the first to reach Olympus' realm. The Princess of Themyscira, had fought the longest in this reality, beside the Amazon's gods, from the outset when the balance had been in the Machine-god's favour, when the Undead-giant had grown into the towering machine of death.

Diana now sensed everything was in the balance. She kept her mind tuned to her native Amazonian Mental Radio, and her ear ready to hear the telepathic enhanced comm signal from the Justice League. Even now she could see the battle turning, the once superior numbers of the enemy forces had been whittled down, by attrition and defections to the rebel cause.

Diana gave a yell above the clamour of battle. The time of their victory was coming closer.

In the melee she had lost her shield, but it left her hand free to wield her golden lasso which was a weapon in and of itself.

Then Martian Manhunter communicated across their alliance, telepathically linking the League, the Hive mind to Amazons and the Atlanteans.

"I have been empowered by Demeter, goddess of the Harvest." Jo J'Onzz broadcast. Her telepathic images revealed the Olympians choices of individual and occasionally paired Champions; each selection made sense given the symbols and nature of both gods and the persons called.

Jo J'Onzz had joined the fight inside the Machine-god. Again she shared mental images that showed they were winning, breaking down and destabilising the vast structure that was this Grey Tower of Death.

Yet Diana took no pleasure in this grand gesture by Olympus. She recognised the truth, this was a desperate act. The gods were nothing if not personification of power, relinquishing that power to human agents was like wringing a damp cloth to extract the last drops of moisture. It was a means of exploiting the last of their reserves of godly power.

It was not only victory that was close at hand, but also defeat.

Wonder Woman in that moment understood the battle – the balance could tip either way.

She watched as goddess Hestia sent her sacred flame souring across the Elysian Fields, as gift to the Green Lanterns. She saw via her mother's thoughts across the Amazon Mental Radio how the goddess of the Hearth was using Ganthlet's other worldly power ring to channel her godly fire into the individual power rings of the corps.

If nothing else it confirmed that this green Power ring was magical in origin.

The mystery deepened, but Diana had not time to ponder such questions, for her the battle continued. She decided to shoulder the truth alone. Let her friends revel in their new powers, and enjoy their god-forged weapons. She trusted their commitment. There was nothing to gain in sharing her doubts. The knowledge that their fates were balanced on a knifes edge.

Diana leapt over the violet beast with the appearance of a dragon; why she wondered had this violet energy entity been the hardest of these spectrum beings of raw emotion for her to defeat. Her tiara forged from the discus of Apollo flew outwards slicing through the purple dragon, the creature roared and staggered, but it did not fall. Again its mouth filled with fiery energies snapped at her heels. She knew Superman was deep within the Machine-god leading the fight to reach the heart of the Undead-giant, and the truth. She now believed their future rested on his success, the exposure of the self-styled Cronus for what he truly was.

Truth and Justice meant a great deal to Diana. Only peace and love mattered as much.

She thought of Kal, and in unexpected and irrational anger Diana span her golden lasso far further than she intended, it proved to be a happy accident. The golden line wound out, coiling to almost impossible lengths, snaring around the dragons spines. Then from above the mighty hand of Zeus delivered lightning to her left and right. Crash and crash, in a split second, causing the free spinning golden line snagged the Orange eel like energy beast, winding around the writhing snake, so it too was held fast.

Diana wondered was this act intentional – was this the will of the King of the gods? If so why wait until now to reveal it. Why had Zeus chosen this moment to intervene?

The truth was simple, she told herself, it is always about balance. Now the King of the gods, had tipped that balance in her favour. She read this as his royal command.

Wonder Woman rose again from the muddy ground, the long line snapping around the horns of the red bull like beast.

As the vast red energy entity pulled against the magic unbreakable golden cord, Diana shouted out. "Hera give me Strength!" It was her favourite cry of desperation.

Yet when Hera's replied Diana was awestruck. Hera never answered her. Her god-mothers and Hermes, who had each blessed her as a baby - yes, but Hera never.

"Well done child." The Queen of the gods had said. Her words carried little warmth, but there was truth in them. Diana was convinced of it - this was the god's plan. This was what she must do.

Zeus' other hand brought the great Sickle of the Ages down past Diana, and so pinned the Indigo octopus by three of its twitching limbs. Wonder Woman danced past the preternatural blade, and extended her snare. Above her Zeus smiled like a proud father.

Wonder Woman leapt high once again. Zeus struck unexpectedly, brushing her sword with his sacred weapon, a glancing blow, one she took as a passing salute.

Had she the strength to wrangle all seven energy beasts? Wrestling the Red bull alone had been a herculean labour.

Diana twisted and danced past the green leviathan, as the vast beast tried to slip past her golden fishing line, but she snagged this entity by its tail. The vast green whale was wilful, but Diana felt her strength grow even as she fought it to a standstill. It was then she realised what Zeus had done. As she brought her right hand to her lariat she saw she no longer held her sword, but rather the great stone Sickle of the Ages. It was this sleight of hand exchange that confirmed her fears. She whipped the line of her lasso outwards again snagging the yellow beast of many hideous faces.

The balance had not just tipped, it had wobbled. Zeus had given her the most awful of weapons, the blade that had dethroned his father, and grandfather. It was a terrible burden of both power and trust.

The blue bird was the last energy entity still free. She cast forward her limitless and unbreakable line, but this beast had air under its wings, and sped from her. Wonder Woman felt hope slipping away.

Then the world turned. Literally the whole of Elysian Fields folded in and on itself. One moment the bird beast was disappearing blue into endless blue skies, and then it was hurtling back to her. The blackness of the damp earth engulfed them all, threatening to swallow everything, bury the living and the dead. Wonder Woman's lariat encircled this flying blue flame, the last of the brilliant beasts, was tethered to her.

As the blackness close around them all, the truth became clear to Diana through the magic of her golden lasso. These creatures of raw emotion were part of an emotional spectrum that in turn was part of a greater whole, absolute unified power.

In the blackness, one by one the brilliant beasts burned all the brighter. Then their light surged along the shining lariat as if it were a golden cable to Diana. The energy passed through her bodily as Wonder Woman acted as a conduit for these primal emotions given form. These incredible energies now surged into the Sickle of the Ages. First red, then orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, and last violet.

There was now absolute blackness. The still cold embrace of damp dank black earth.

Then the Sickle of the Ages burst into a brilliant white light, and this was all Diana could see, a burning star like brilliance, that in turn waned until the ancient godly weapon became visible once more. The Sickle was no longer a crude stone tool but it had been magically reforged.

This renewed weapon burned with a fearsome light.

It was a bright adamant Falcata, it's blade pitching forward to the point, with a concave edge, but convex top, a shape that gave this unique sword devastating momentum. Used in anger it had the power of an axe, but having the properties of a sword.

Then the world turned upside down once more.


End file.
